OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 22159, 30 October 1933, Page 8

OBITUARY

M. PAINLEVE. EX-PREMIER OF FRANCE. (United Press Assn.— Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 12.10 a.m.) Paris, October 29. The death is announced of the exPremier, M. Painleve. Paul Painleve, the French statesman, who was born in Paris in December 1863, was a mathematician and as such enjoyed a worldwide reputation. He had occupied chairs of mathematics at Lille, the Ecole Polytechnique and the Sorbonne. His researches led him to the study of flight. With D’Estournelles de Constant and Bouttieaux he published in 1909 a work entitled “Pour 1 Aviation,” lectured at the technical college devoted to the service in 1909-10, and with Emile Borel produced in 1910 “L’Aviation,” dealing with the theory and practice of flight. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and of the Institut de France. A Republican Socialist, he entered the Briand Cabinet of October 1915, as Education Minister and served as War Minister in Ribot’s Government (1917). It was he who put Foch and Petain at the head of the French forces. In September 1917, he became Premier, but his Ministry fell on November 13 in consequence of the disappointing results of the campaign. After the 1924 elections he was appointed President of the Chamber. On the fall of Millerand he was the candidate of the Left for the Presidency of the Republic, but only received 310 votes against 515 cast for Doumergue. In January 1925, he was again chosen President of the Chamber and after the fall of Herriot he formed his second Cabinet in April, 1925, having with difficulty induced Briand to take the Foreign Office with Caillaux as his colleague at the Finance Ministry. Caillaux’s proposals for dealing with the financial crisis did not meet with the approval of the Chamber, and, as he refused to resign, Painleve did so. On October 29 he formed a nevz Government in which he took the finance portfolio himself. Proposals for a kind of capital levy which he introduced on November 7 were rejected by the Socialists as not sufficiently drastic. He modified his scheme, but the Chamber rejected it and he resigned on November 22, being succeeded by Briand in whose Government Painleve became War Minister, bringing in an army reorganization scheme. Owing to the disastrous slump in the franc, however, the Cabinet fell in July, 1926. Painleve became War Minister in Poincare’s Government of National Union and again brought in his army reform scheme which provided for the gradual reduction of military service from 18 to 12 months and for the replacement by civilians of soldiers engaged on clerical and other non-military duties so that all the time spent with the colours should be devoted to actual training. The bill was adopted by the Chamber in June, 1927. Painleve was also responsible for a costly scheme for the fortification of the frontier. He was noted for his ab-sent-mindedness which had produced some amusing episodes. On one occasion he spoke on aviation when the subject to be dealt with was motor cars and at the last election he could not recall the name of the division for which he was standing and sent a telegram to inquire. In the autumn of 1927 he was given an hon. LL.D, by Cambridge. His son, also a scientist, was induced to become a film actor in order to raise money for the biological laboratory of the Sorbonne in which he was keenly interested.

SIR JOHN BILES. NOTED NAVAL ARCHITECT. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, October 27. The death is announced of Sir John Biles, naval architect. Sir John Havard Biles was bom at Portsmouth in 1854. He was educated at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He was Naval Constructor to the Admiralty from 1877 to 1881, naval architect and manager to the Clydebank Shipyard from 1881 to 1890, and Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University from 1891 to 1921. He professionally visited India, Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and China. He was knighted in 1913.