INTERNATIONAL: At the Marne

Stirred by the story of how beloved Marshal (“Papa”‘) Joffre saved Paris with the aid of Galliéni’s improvised ”Taxicab Army” and flung back the Germans from the Marne, more than 4,000,000 U. S. schoolchildren gave nickels, dimes and quarters to pay for the Marne Victory Monument first presented to France in May 1921 ”in return for the Statue of Liberty.” Last week the schoolchildren’s gift, an exciting 130-ft. granite figure of France Defiant shielding a wounded poilu, was “re-presented and unveiled” by U. S. Ambassador Walter Evans Edge on its hill top at Meaux on the Marne, 30 miles from Paris. Present were solemn, long-mustached President Albert Lebrun of France, plump, genial Premier Edouard Herriot and a French audience so militant that two mentions of Aristide Briand (the late, great French Peace Man) were vociferously booed. Schoolchildren and monuments were all but forgotten when Ambassador Edge, speaking presumably for the State Department, uttered what sounded like the first breath of a more vigorous U. S. foreign policy. Obviously Mr. Edge was referring to Japan’s seizure of Manchuria and to Germany’s invasions of France when he said : “Americans are wedded to a fundamental axiom. … On a national scale, and in international practice, this axiom would read. … .A nation’s primary right is to be free of fear of invasion! “Faith in the justice of this principle is so deeply ingrained in the American people that when they see territory over run they are aroused and. as this monument testifies, instinctively resolve to throw their moral and, if needs be, their material weight on the side of the invaded. This thought was uppermost in the minds of my fellow-citizens when they determined to commemorate, with this testimonial of their enthusiasm, the decisive victory of the Marne.” Was There a Battle? Instead of planning a last stand or ”Battle of the Marne” Papa Joffre had ordered a retreat to the Seine when General Joseph Simon Galliéni learned through one of his airmen of an amazing German move. Though Germany’s Armies on the Western Front had slashed through Belgium and Northern France until they were almost in sight of Paris, their swift advance had suddenly been halted by orders from General von Moltke’s High Command—clue apparently to terrific pressure by the Russian Armies on Germany’s Eastern Front. “As a matter of fact, was there a Battle of the Marne?” is the staggering question asked in General Galliéni’s War Diary, just published posthumously at Paris. Under date of Sept. 25, 1914 this entry in the diary continues: “General Headquar-ters’ instructions [i. e. Joffre’s] dated Sept. 2 orders the [French] armies to retreat to the Seine and the withdrawal of two army corps from Nancy. Thus, evacuation of Nancy and Verdun. “General de Castelnau disobeys orders, resists on the Grand Couronne, saves Nancy. General Sarrail gives battle before Verdun despite orders to retreat. He saves Verdun. I take the offensive [with taxicabsj before Paris while General Headquarters are removed far to the rear at Chatillon. These were actions independent of the will of the commander-in-chief, carried out by commanders of the army corps, but premeditated by General Headquarters—never!” Though Diarist Galliéni’s “Taxicab Army” came in handy, there were only 600 taxicabs and they carried in two trips only one of the 56 Allied divisions then opposed by 44 German divisions. Galliéni, whom the French Cabinet had left behind as Military Governor of Paris when they tied to Bordeaux, received scant official thanks for his astuteness at the Marne, incurred Joffre’s enmity, was forced out of active command and died at Versailles in 1916. But merit triumphed. On April 21, 1921, to the rapturous delight of Paris, dead General Galliéni was posthumously created a Marshal of France.