ILLNESS OF JOFFRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18763, 30 December 1930, Page 9

ILLNESS OF JOFFRE

GENERAL WEYGAND’S TOUCHING FAREWELL. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received December 30, 12.20 a.m.) PARIS, December 29. General Weygand tendered a touching farewell to Marshal Joffre. The pair had been estranged for many years, owing to General Weygand being an enthusiastic partisan of Marshal Foch, a fact which Marshal Joffre took to heart. General Weygand felt he could not let his old chief die without attempting a reconciliation, so accompanied by exPresident Millerand, he went to Marshal Joffre’s hospital and found the Marshal unable to speak. “Whether he recognised me or not, I do not know,” added General Weygand. Monsignor Maglioni, Papal Nuncio in France, stated that Marshal Joffre had been given the last Sacrament. (Marshal Joffre, who is 78 years of age, was the French Commander-in-Chief in the Great War from August, 1914, to September, 1916. He entered the French Army during the FrancoPrussian War as a second-lieutenant, and commanded a battery in the defence of Paris. He also saw service in Northern Africa, and wrote an interesting account of hi§ march to Timbuctoo. He was created a Marshal of France in December, 1916, and visited the United States on a special mission in 1917. Next year he was elected a member of the French Academy.)