The Washington times., 1919-01-12
allies who stiu sing, Mr.. Wilfred tells.
these self same soldier songs.
French High Cennissisn
Likely To he Expanded.


French High Csnnissisn
Likely To De Expanded.
The knowledge that q number OF
the important French "missionaries," !,
for instance, General Claudon and the
members OF his staff, were returning
to France. has. given rise 70 the
the French. high commission was be-
ing reduced to skeleton proportions.
This, however, is far from being
the case. OF course, such OF the
.sous Missions as dealt with purely
military matters, ordnance, aviation,
etc, are being demobIlized as rapidly
as possible and their members are
packing up and going home now that
fighting has ceased But the reia-
tionship between France ana the
United States in matters Of commerce
and finance is growing continually
closer and the; Intellectual. cultural.
and spiritual liaison is becoming more
and more complete. ~1ndicatfons IRE,
indeed. that the high commission win
discharge an even more important
function in peace than 4n war and
that, on the whole II will probably
be expanded rather, than contracte1.
Andre Tardieu Is still technically
high. commissioner of France In the
United States, but his duties. as \
member Nof the French cabinet re-,
quire his presence in Paris the great
er part OF tho tirne. Consequently
practical direction Of the mani
fold -activie.es " Ice commission de-
wolves upon the deputy high commits
sioner. Edouard de Billy.
NJ de Billy has made SO many
friends in Washington that the ar
rival Of his wife, who came over TO
join him not long ago, was an event
Billy turns out to be a singularly
charming person, young-not more
than thirty-five, to hazard q guess-I
good to look upon. chic and blessed
with a gracious and winning manner.
: Shortly after her arrival. was told
that she was half Greek, half Scotch,
| md educated In France"-doesn.t that
combination present interesting pos
sibtiities? But this Information turns
! out to be erroneous. She is Bourde-
laise, with an admixture OF Scotch
blood far back. which may account not
alone for the fluency and purity of
her. English, but for the truly British
accent with which she speaks the
tongue. Until the signing OF the ar
mistice she was actively engaged In
| war work and took great deal Of
| interest in the movement to arrange
holiday visits to French homes for
American soldiers on permission.
She Is an intellectual woman, with a
pretty literary. talent, and has transla-
| ted much OF Emerson into French.
Although he was born in Lyons
this Is not. official. but seems to be
Iauthentic-and has q home In Mo-
rocco. NJ. de" Billy is very much the
Parisian. In the French capital he
| and his charming wife are affiliated
| with the aristocratic little coterie Of
French protestants whose position in
Paris lis somewhat akin to that OF
the old KnickerbockerN families in
New York or the Brahmin caste in
New England. Mime. de Billy Is her
husbands second wife, his FIRST wife's
sister. and they were married not
very long before the war broke out.
| He saw active service as Iiaison Off
Ger with the British army in Belgium
he then had the rank Of captain
| later was promoted and sent to Lon
don to help organize the interns-
tional bureau Of munitions. and fin-
ally was selected for his present i'm
portant post in Washington.
Just a word before closing about the
first entertainment given by the newly
organized United states Employment
Service Club. This was a dance At
Rauscher's last evening. and particu-
larry jolly and informal dance. The
club is social in character. and its chief
| object Is to promote the general welfare
| OF its members and increase social in
tercourse among them; so IL was quite
to be expected that they would turn out
| In full force. And II was a foregone
conclusion, that they would have q good
| time after they got there. for the floor
was good. the music ine-"Smiles."
"Bee-u-tiful Katy-ee." "oh, How i Hate
to Get PIP in the Morning" all the
popular favorites. with the Blue Dan
ube" as a fitting finale. and every now
and then a Paul Jones was inter
4 polated. so that the young people soon