ALLIES OF BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20219, 2 April 1929, Page 9

ALLIES OF BRITAIN.

FRENCH SOLDIERS' VISIT. MEMORIAL DAY IN LONDON. Australian and Is.Z. Press Association. LONDON, March 31. Nine hundred members of La Flamme, the French equivalent to the Returned Soldiers' League, headed liy General Gouraud, military Governor of Paris, who lost one arm in the war, spent to-day in London. It was a visit of homage in response to last year's pilgrimage, by 11,000 members of tho British Legion to Ypres and Northern France. The Frenchmen were all in mufti and wore berets inscribed La Flamme. They assembled in Westminster Hall where thev were very cordially welcomed in speeches made in the French tongue by Earl Jellicoe, president of the British Legion, and Major-General G. S. Cine, Directoi of Personal Services, War Office.

Headed by British and French military bands the visitors went to Westminster Abbey. There General Gouraud laid palm leaves, worked in bronze, on the tomb ot the Unknown Warrior. The procession then went to the Cenotaph, where General Gouraud deposited a bronze wreath.

Tho French band played Vallin's funeral march, " Sommeil Eternal" ("Endless Sieep"). General Gouraud joined the Countesr.es Haig and Jellicoe and naval and military officers, and took the salute as the pilgrims marched past the Horse Guards.

General Henri Joseph Eugene Gouraud, who was born in Paris in November, 1867, has been Military Governor of Paris since 1923. He entered the army in 1890, and served in the colonies until 1914. While in the. Sudan he captured a disaffected chief who l.ad been a source of trouble. Later he was stationed in the Congo, and in 1911 went to Morocco, where he was Lvautey's right-hand man.

In 1914, as a genera!, he led a division in the Argonne, and was severely wounded. Early in 1915 he took over the Colonial Army Corps on the Champagne front, but in May replaced' General d'Amade as commander of the French troops in Gallipoli. During the fighting in June at Keroves Dero he was again badly wounded and lost his right arm. After going on a mission to Italy he was put in command of the Fourth Army in December, 1915. A year later bo was sent to Morocco to replace Lyautey, who had b'jen appointed Minister of War, and it was not until the latter's return in July, 1917, that Gouraud resumed his command on the Western Front, securing some valuable gains on the Moronvillers heights.

In July, 1913, the Germans made two great converging attacks, ono on Gouraud's 26-mile front east of Kheims, and tho other on a 22-mile sector southwest of the city, but the French were well prepared. They lost no guns and their casualties were insignificant.. No impression was made on Gouraud s front, of which the lirst lines were lightly held and were soon recovered. Gouraud more than anyone else frustrated Ludendorff's last offensive. Then the big Allied attack was launched. In September, 1918, Gouraud was on the left of tho Americans, and took part in tho sweep forward, his men advancing nearly eight miles in five days and taking over 12,000 prisoners. Pursuing tho Third German Army lie reached Ihe Aisno on September 26, and the Mcuse on October 20. Thereafter his progress was rapid. With tho Americans he carried tho Hunding Line on the Aisno and Mouse, advancing eight miles in two days. By November 6 he was before Sedan; two days later he was at Mezieres, and by Armistice Day he had reached tho frontier.

For l.is services General Gouraud was awarded the Grand Cro6S of the Legion of Honour, and as commander at Strasbourg assisted Millerand in taking over the recovered provinces. In October, 1919, he was made High Commissioner in Syria and negotiated with the Kemalists. Feisal had had himself proclaimed King of Syria in March, 1920. Gouraud, in view*of the French mandate, refused him recognition, and defeated Lis troops, entering Damascus on July 25. He then began to organise the country, which bo had well in hand by the time ho retired in 1922. Gouraud then visited the United States, where lie had a great reception.