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Last week tough old Atheist Clemenceau, 87, followed Death to the house of Christian Foch, 77, and condoled privily with Mme. la Marechale. Stumping forth with sturdy cane, he said: "It is unjust. He was my junior and it is I who come to salute him who is dead. He is entitled to the profoundest respect."
Equally frigid and correct are the relations of "Tiger" Clemenceau with the grizzled "Lion of Lorraine," M. Raymond Poincaré−now Prime Minister−who was President of France during the war. At the triumphal French entry into Strassburg in 1918, the Lion and the Tiger formally embraced each other, but it is said that they have never met or spoken since. Last week a personal autograph letter was sent by M. Poincaré to M. Clemenceau, inviting him in the name of the French Government to attend the funeral of Marshal Foch; but Le Tiger replied to Le Lion that he had already taken leave of Le Patron. French poilus called Foch Le Patron ("the boss") out of homage and respect, reserving the merely affectionate nickname of Le Papa for bumbling old Marshal Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre.
Will Always Wins. The grand legacy of Marshal Foch to future Generalissimos, and the touchstone of all his victories, is a psychological concept of warfare which he stated thus:
"War belongs to the department of moral force. A battle is the conflict of two mills. Victory is a moral superiority on the part of the conqueror and a moral depression on the part of the conquered."
When practical English and Scotch generals were inclined to have their doubts, General Foch would confute them thus:
"Very well, Messieurs, let us be practical! One hundred thousand men leave 10,000 of their number dead upon the ground and acknowledge themselves beaten. They retreat before the victors who have lost as many men, if not more. Neither one side nor the other side knows when they withdraw what its own losses have been nor how heavy those of the opposing force. Therefore, it is not on account of material damage, still less from any possible computation of the figures, that the losers give up the struggle. The will to conquer sweeps all before it. There is a psychological phenomenon in great battles which explains and determines their results. The moral factor is the most important element in war."
A most astounding application of these principles was the complete reversal of the Allied plan of campaign in 1918, when Ferdinand Foch was given supreme command as Generalissimo. So irresistible seemed the German advance in those black days that the Allies were preparing to abandon Paris.
"Paris!" cried Foch when he assumed supreme command, "Paris has nothing to do with this matter! Paris is far away. We must stop the Germans where they are. We have only to say 'They shall not pass!' and they will not pass. . . . Three-fourths of the battle is won when the men know they are not going to retreat."
* Less than 100 lbs. at Death.
*Four Frenchmen are correctly addressed as "M. le President": The President of France The President of the Cabinet The President of the Senate The President of the Chamber.
* Father Germain Foch S. J. survives Marshal Foch.