GENERAL PAU.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 28 September 1918, Page 5

GENERAL PAU.

A HERO OF TWO WARS.

The most interesting personality of the French Mission at present in Australia is the fine old French army leader, General Pau, a hero- of two great wars (says the Sydney Morning Herald). He was little more than1 a youth when the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, but he was through some of the most terrible fighting of that unhappy campaign. He ,was in. the battle of Woei'th, and was three times severely wounded. He survived, but he lost his right arm. The war went against his beloved France, and his wounds were not healed when he heard *that Bourbaki was organising an army to continue the resistance against- the oncoming Prussians. The young, one-armed officer joined Bourbaki, and he was with the latter's illstarred army when it was swept up to and across the Swiss frontier. Pau refused to cross the border. With, a party of his men he crept, by night, through the German lines, and so back into France.

During the 40 years after the Franco-German peace, General Pau served his country in many offices, and performed much good work in the French colonies. Finally, he reached a position on the Superior War Council of France.

General Pau clearly saw the German menace, and in the years before 1914 he urged the need of preparations. He saw the growing strength of the" German army, and he insisted that all Frenchmen' should be subjected to, three instead of two' years' military service. When he was told the proposal was very unpopular he demanded the measure because, he said, he knew it was necessary. The measure became law, and General Pau was more than justified by events.' = When the present war broke out, General Pau was on the retired list, but he asked to rejoin the army, arid he performed most notable service. The French were being beaten back in Alsace. Pau.!took command- there, and drove the Germans back'jiractically to the Rhine, where "the front has ■ remained ever since. GeneraF Pau commanded the 6th French Army in the first battle^ of the Marne, where he conducted important operations on the flank of the British Army. Later, the " British' and French were seeking to form' a permanent line northwards of Picardy, and the military position in Belgium was critical. "General Pau was Bent north. The Allies had hoped to force the enemy out of the western half of Belgium, but the fall of Antwerp rendered that impossible. General Pau assisted the Belgian forces, retreating- southwards, to join up with the British and French armies across Flanders, on the present Yser line. In 1915, after the Russians had been • severely handled by Hindenburg,- and were in a condition that threatened the stability of the Eastern front, General Pau' was sent to Russia, and he spent a year there. When he returned to France in September, 1916, the Russians were attacking valiantly all along the Eastern front; and a despatch published in the New York Globe from its correspondent in German Eastern headquarters, said that "the Germans give the credit for the rehabilitation of. the Rusisan armies to General Pau." Since then, General Pau has been on important' missions for his Government in : Switzerland arid elsewhere.