Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-09

a
of France. He is Maxine Wey-
gand, whom Foch loved as son, es-
teemed as a daily collaboration and
trusted above any other. A great many
things that the late allied generalisSimo
advised the civilian politicians who
govern France to do, they have left I'M
done; but they have followed his fond
est wish for his country's army in max
ing Maxine Weygand chief of the gen.
eral staff.
It really is Foch's mantle that Wey-
gand wears. He knew the old marshal's
mind as did no other man. Day and
night through all the months of the
war they worked together. In the years
that followed Weygand was Fochs con-
slant companion, in the home as we'll
as in the Office, up to the very day last
March when the grand old man NUT
tered "Allons-y" and passed away.
Through all the six sorrowful days be-
tween the death of Foch and the i'm
preSsive national funeral it was Wey-
gand who comforted the widow; it was
Weygand who escorted the great of 20
nations to his masters bier; it was
Weygand who acted as intermediary be-
tween the prime minister and the arch
bishop of Paris in arranging that
church and state should unite for the
first time since the break in honoring
an immortal French soldier.
Weygand could not have slept more
: than q few hours that week, but as his
short, cavalryman's bow legs paced off
the miles between Notre Dame and the
Invalides, following the marshaPs coffin
to its tomb, he looked scarcely As years
old. This January he celebrated his
sixty-third birthday. There is not a
gray hair in his round, bulletlike head.
With Foch in First Battle.
Weygand, beginning the war as a
lieutenant colonel was with Foch in
the first battle of the Marine. He was
with him the next year when Foch
commanded the northern armies of
France, whose left flank Joined the
British right 1t was Weygand who eff
fected the daily contacts between the
two allied commanders. With his lucid
expression his politeness, his sureness
In all military matters, he had a genius
for getting along with foreigners-and
that was a rare and badly needed quail
ity in the early days Of the Franco
British collaboration.
In 1916 Weygand was sent to Italy.
There we're complaints Of too much
| "defeatism'' in that country. Italy was
shaking in its boot at the very thought
. of the new offensive that Germany and
Austria were preparing. Weygand took
stock of the situation, arranged for
French and British help on the italian
front and returned home to help Foch
! again.
During the early part of the war his
name was almost unknown to French
civilians and the world at large. He
was F'och's silent partner. 1t was only
when he was appointed, in December,
1917, to succeed Foch on the Supreme
Interallied War Council at Versailles
that his name began to get into the
papers. His shock of black hair alone
would have attracted attention there at
Versailles in 'roomful of gray-haired
/ generals. He became an intimate COL
| laborator of Maj. Gen. Sir Henry
Hughes Wilson, the British representa-
tive. They had known and respected
one another on the User in 1914, when
Wilson was to Marshal French what
Weygand was to Foch.
Weygand sat with the Supreme Coun-
Gil only few months. In the Spring