Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-29
FALL AND RISE
OF SARRAIL
French General in Command in
Balkans Has Had Many
Ups and Downs
By w. r. MURPHY


~ ENERAL LOUIS SARRAIL IS the big
VI figure looming over the Balkans. Press
dispatches from Macedonia and Greece an
nounce that the spring drive in the cockpit
of Europe has entered its opening phase
Lake Doran the Vardar River and Salonica
are names that reappear after many
months absence in the official commun-
iques from the belligerent capitals, particu-
larly the official statements from Paris.
The Balkans, pivotal point about which
swung the political intrigues which brought
about the great war, have developed their
new offensive. The complementary cam.
paign to that of the Anglo-French from
Verdun to Laon, long expected and care
fully prepared, is rounding out operations
in the Near East from the Entente base at
Salonica
General Sarrail is the notable and domi-
nant figure Discredited, dismissed from
command less than two years back, then
Unexpectedly called to the Balkans, he is
pitted against Field Marshal Mackensen,
who swept through Galica, took the "lm-
pregnable" fortress OF Ivangorod and pushed
as far as the Russian great headquarters
behind the Warsaw line at Brest Lii
tovsk earlier in the war and then became
conqueror Of Serbia, Montenegro and Ru.
mania, On him the federated Germans,
Austrians, Turks and Bulgarians are pin
ming their hopes.
Against him is Sarrail, once almost cash.
Tered, now the chief at Salonica. He was
Ktcheners choice for the Allies in the
Near Eastern field, selected after the late
British War Secretarys trip to Greece and
| the Balkans just prior to the fatal Russian
mission which ended in the Marshal's death.
Millerand, the French War Minister backed
Kitchener's choice.
Originally the Balkan command was des-
| tined for General A. NJ. Hamilton by the
| Allies War Council in Paris But Ilitch-
hD a
| tisan. He had vision, He passed up Ham,
| ilton in favor of Sarrail.
The task confronting Sarrail is q monu-
| mental one. He was assigned to the COM
| mand-in-chief of the French army of the
Orient on August 7, 1915. He refused the
billet, at first, when the Anglo-French at
tempt to force the Dardanelles seemed
| more Saxon than Gallo. It did not seem
| to beht the dignity inhering in a French
| general who had reached such rank as 10
| mako him considered as a candidate for
chief command of the Republics military
| establishment He Is said to have felt
that he would have 70 defer to English
generals who were graduates merely OF
| colonial brushes.
Them probably inspired by Afillerand. h.
| changed his mind and accepted the an
pointment which at the time carried con-
| troll OF the French on the Gallpoli Penin-
| sula, He took the place of Generals
| d'Amande and Gourad, both invalided
| home, Then came the Decentralization OF
| Allied troops at Salonica. Sarrail was
| there on his way to the Dardanelles There
| he stayed. The fruit of his stay is now
| evident His partisans in Paris welded
| enormous influence TO make his stay as
permanent as the war should be lasting
There had been revulsion of feeling
In France toward Sarrail since the early
| days Of the war and the episode which
| cost him his command on the home front
| Hundreds of Brenchmen, through what was
| charged as an error of omission on Sar.
rails part had died in the noxlous fumes
of asphyxiating gases, and 5000 had been
made captives because he had not taken
proper precautions to have his men pro.
| vided with protective masks in the early
days when the Boches invoked the aid ot
toxi-chemistry.
A press campaign prepared the way 10,
the shift in public opinion. Both Clemen
ceau In L'Homme Enchaine and Herye 4,
La Guerre Sociale were Sarrail partisans
Both these papers were twice Suppressed n,
the issue Of his demanded restoration :,
rank and activity. Copies of editions con
tanning defense of Safrail and intlunatin,
that the fault lay higher up" and that M
was merely an official scapegoat were seize,
by the censorship. More than that ~
"affaire Sarrail" threatened a disruptio,
OF the sacred union" Of parties, becaus
Radicals, OF whose party Sarran had nee,
called the pet" were wroth at the dep,ra
dation OF a republican" general, as distin
guished from ''reactionary" general. who's
politics are conservative and who is ami 4
be churchman.
! There was politics involved in the AT