Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-03
FIFTH INNING
THE LIFE OF MARSHAL JOFFRE
BY
BY ALEXANDER KAHN
Copyright.

cations, built blocl<houses. gradually en-
tended his line of defenses into the sur
rounding country. The engineer supplanted
the soldier once more.
AT the end of the year 1894, twenty years
before his appointment to the supreme COM
mand of the French forces in the struggle
that is TO decide the future of Europe, Joffre
was rewarded by being made an officer Of
the Legion of Honor. This mark of ap-
probation signalized the end of his labors
in the Soudan The country was paCified.
the natives learned to respect the French
soldiers as enemies, as they learned not to
fear them as friends.
How did .Ioffre succeed in achieving this
wonderful result? The answer is by method
knowledge. energy and justice.
His work done, he received the order to
return TO France. This time he obeyed
without a murmur. There was still much
TO he done but the most important part
of it. the foundation, so to say, laid on
solid ground and erected in way TO In
sure II against crumblng down, was ac-
complished.
When he came back TO Paris. Joffre be-
came accredited TO the General STAFF as
Secretary to the Commission on Inventions
Nothing shows better Joffre's adapta
bility than the fact that his efficiency was
not marred in the least by his new ap-
pointment. so different from the form of
activity he pursued In Africa.
HIS WORK IN MADAGASCAR
There is curious coincidence in the
fact that Joffre. the conqueror &C the Sou
dan, returned to France after the end of
the Dreyfus trial, and that he was TO
be chosen for another distant expedition
just at the time when the case was TO
assume a much greater importance than
before.
Senator Schcurer- Kestner was about to
demand the revision of the sentence on
Dreyfus. when Lieutenant Colonel Joffre
was intrusted with the task of creating n
fortified naval base at Diego-Suarez, Mad
agascar.
Madagascar, rich in minerals and in all
sorts of raw material had been in the
past source of unending trouble to France,
who for centuries past had been bent upon
establishing her sovereignty over the is
land on a firm foundation
1t was not until 1885 that the treaty
placing the island under a French protec-
torate was signed but the insurrection
which broke out soon after left, after it was
subdued. Madagascar a simple French col
ony in 1896.
General C;alleni. whose role IN saving
Paris from German occupation in the pres
ent war will entitle him to a pedestal of
glory in the French Hall of Fame, was APP
pointed Governor of Madagascar and under
his rule the island fourished and pros
in the truest sense of the word.
More than ten years later 1t became the
duty of Joffre to complete the work by con-
structng fortified naval base at Diego
Suarez.
That Jofrre should have been chosen for
the task is not at all surprising, 1t meant
devotion and singeness o purpose and,
though the truth be bitter, there were few,
If any. other Joffres in the French army
at the time.
Lieutenant Colonel Joffre was made
full-fedged colonel, as he set out for Diego
Suarez to return once more TO engineering,
leaving purely military achievements TO
others.
Little did any one suspect Joffre prob
ably least of all, that Madagascar was to
that his subsequent return to France was
to mark the beginning of an epoch which
inevitably led toward the eliminating point
the command of Frances ANY in the
greatest struggle known TO mankind.
The fortified base at Dlego-Suarez is still
looked upon as a model of construction of
its kind. This in itself would have been
sufficient to cover Colonel Joffre with glory
but the achievement looms still greater
when the difficulties under which the work
had TO proceed are known.
There is one quality in General Jofrre
that is noticed the moment one is associated
in doing work with him. This quality con
sists In never being content with the
formulation of plans and the Issuing of
orders with the Injunction that they must
be implicitly obeyed. General Joffre sets
the example-his subordinates must OF
necessity follow his lead-in lending his
personal endeavors to the carrying out of
what his mind has conceived.
II the Soudan expedition possessed all the
elements of picturesque venture, the
Madagascar appointment had all the char
acteristics of a prosaic task beset with many
difficulties caused by nature and many
others that were the work Of man.
Joifre's advent into Diego-Suares was OF
itself Of q discouraEing character,
No Aoonsr did he land than he was pIung-