MISSION FROM FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17040, 23 December 1918, Page 6

MISSION FROM FRANCE.

VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND,

PARTY LEAVES MELBOURNE.

Australian and N-Z. Cable Association. (R«d. 5.5 p.m.) MELBOURNE. Dec. 20.

The French mission is on board the steamer Runic, which has sailed for Now Zealand.

HURRIED SERIES OF TOURS.

DEPARTURE FROM AUCKLAND. [bt TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Saturday. The French mission beaded by General Pan will arrive at Auckland on December 27. The visitors will proceed to Wellington, Christ-church, Akaroa, and other places, and will leave by the Niagara from Auckland on January 15.

The French mission, which has spent the past few months in Australia, consists of General Pau, head of the mission, Commandant D'Andre, attache to General Pau, M. Marcel Mathieu, M. Leclerr]Motte, of Wattrelos, woollen manufacturer, M. Corbiere, of Nonant-le-Pin, agricultural engineer and stock-breeder, M. Georges Bader, secretary and accountant, and Dr. Siegfried, general secretary of the missionAccompanying them is Mr. Meadows Smith, delegated by the British Government. He was formerly secretary of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris. When the mission left France it was headed by M. Albert Metin, a Labourmember of the Chamber of Deputies, and former Minister for Blockade. He, however, died in San Francisco while the mission was on the way to Australia, and the leadership was assumed by General Pan.

General Pau, who lost his right hand in the Franco-German War, in 1870, was a youth when the 1870 war broke out. He was terribly wounded three times in the battle of Woerth, but managed to struggle home with the loss of an arm. When his arm was scarcely healed he heard M. Bourbaki was organising an army in order to fight on after France was defeated. He insisted in rejoining and fighting with it!on the Swiss frontier. When Bourbaki army was forced over the border into I Switzerland, General Pau refused to cross the border. He made his way by night with a party of his men through the German lines' back to France. During the next forty years he served a good part of his time in* the French colonies. Finally, he reached a position on the superior war council of Frar ce. Realising the manner in which the Germans were increasing their army, General Pau insisted on the law of three-* years' service in the French army. When told it was very unpopular, he still insisted he knew it was necessary. That law was passed just in time to save France. At the outbreak < f war, General Pau was already on the retired list, but asked to rejoin. He was sent to Alsace, when the French were beaten back there, f.nd he drove back the Germans to the Rhine. By that time the condition of affairs in Belgium was serious General Pau's last service consisted of bringing the Belgian army down from Antwerp to the French border. Later he was sent on important missions to Switzerland and Russia, fle speaks only a little English. Dr. Siegfried is a professor in the School of Political Science, Paris. He visited Australia and New Zealand in 1899, and is' the author of "Democracy in New Zealand," and " Edward Gibbou Wakefield on the Theory of Colonisation in South Australia." Hi has also written of Canada and the political parties in France. Dr. Siegfried is a son of a former Minister for Commerce. He was with the British Army for three years during the war, and won the Military, Medal Commandant D'Andre is. a professional soldier. He played a brilliant part in tho Battle of the Marae, was wounded, and was awarded' the Cross of the Legion of Honour. He was a prisoner of war in Germany for two years. M. Louis Leclercq-Motte is a woolmanufacturer, of Roubaix, one of the towns held by the Germans from 1914 up to the successful British advance in Fianders, just prior to tho termination of hostilities. During the war he acted as an interpreter with the British Army. He holds the D.C.M. and Croix de Guerre.

M. Henri Corbiere is a well-known cattle and horse breeder, of Normandy, and. is an agricultural expert. Though over military age, he enlisted at the outbreak of war, and won the Cross of the Legion of Honour.

M. Bader, secretary and accountant of the- mission, spent 14 years of his life in Australia, being formerly attached to the French Bank in Melbourne; and was also in a wool merchant's employ in Sydney.