Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-29

falre." Through Sarrall the Extremists were
striking at members Of the Cabinet, whose
only achievement, il was declared, had been
to permit the return Of the banshed re-
ligious orders and to furnish regimental
chaplains with officer rank, thus giving
Rome a new grip on a country released by
the broken Concordat from "priestcraft
domination" according to their argument
Sarrail was at one time the most cordially
hated officer in France. But opinion has
veered around in his favor He was chief
Of staff when General Andre was Minister
of War, and looked forward to the highest
honors in the establishment
Politics in the Army
His unpopularity had its origin in the
first premiership of Aristide BRAND, The
War Minister undertook to sweep out Of
the army all officers who professed any sort
OF religious afIlliation. Even officers whose
wives and families were regular attendants
at church were marked for eventual dis
missal The movement was to separate alb
solutely Church and State because the ma
tional welfare and religion were not synon-
ymous In the philosophy of the radicals
represented by BRAND and Andre. Liter
ally thousands of officers ranking from col.
onel down lost their commissions through
being forced out under various pretexts
Sarrail was the agent through which the re-
ligious element was banished from the mill
tary establishment.
Andre and Sarrail were severely criti-
cized even by men who were professional
atheists on account of the use of large
sums of Secret Service money to ascertain
the religious views of army men, whether
Protestant or Catholic. Support of the
Freemason lodges, which in France are in
fldel and political in contradstincton to
the social and fraternal purposes of the
organization in this country, was enlisted
in what the CleriCals called a sweeDinR ca M
paign of espionage, that left no domestic
relation private. The criticism grew so
violent that Andre eventually lost his port
folio and Sarrail the popularity that had
come to him in Algeria His rank, how
ever, was not reduced and he was not forced
out Of the army.
Sarrail was given a good command on
the Verdun front in the early days of the
war in opposition to the German Crown
Prince. His record was excellent and his
command so varied as to excite favoring
comment in higher quarters until the dis
aster which befell his troops when the
Germans introduced asphyxiatlng gases.
Then came his dismissal which gratifed
a large portion of the military establish
ment, including those officers forced out
when he was staff chief and called back
In the stress of hostilities. The army still
bore the internal scars of the Andre scan
dal, and dislike of Sarrail had not been
completely lessened by his brilliant record
before the key fortress of Verdun.
Immediately Clemenceau, the stormy
petrol of French politics, and Herve, SAT-
from journalist and radical thinker, en-
| gineered the campaign Of defense and res
toration. 1t came to a climax with the
appointment Of Sarrail TO command the
| Anglo-Brench-Serb campaign in the Bal
kans, a designation that must have had
merit else 1t had not been o. KID by the
late Lord Kitchener