Evening star., 1933-01-22

The glory of his achievements at the Marne
and Verdun surrounded him that we saw
more than the pleasant-faced, dignif1ed man,
with white hair and moustache; we saw also
q hero. In his Memoirs" Marshal Joffre de-
votes his last chapter to his mission to the
United States and his last paragraph Is an
expression of hope for permanent friendship
between the United States and France.
Politics, Influenced as they so often are by
despicabe motives have since found means,
from time to time, to embitter the feelings
between Americans and ourselves; but when
I look back upon those few brief weeks in
the Spring of 1917 and live through them again
in writing these lines. when I remember those
eager faces, those hands stretched out to clasp
our own, when I hear again the shouts Of Joy
which greeted our passage, I cannot believe
that these misunderstanding can ever persist.
And wish to die sustained by the hope that
France and the United States will never for
get that at two tragic moments in their history
they drew their swords to fight side by side
for right and liberty, and did not sheathe them
again until, by victory together. they
had saved the most sacred of all causes" Field
Marshal Joffre died January 3, 1881, and an
other name was then added to the rapidly
growing roster of the greatest leaders of the
World War who are no longer amcng the living.
His Memoirs" are, of course among the i'm
portant original sources for the history Of the
VOAN wal fS SCiACldl IcdulLS, tilcy dIc pCI.
haps too full of technical military details for
everyone, but it would be a mistake to dismiss
the book as merely military history. 1t Is
so simply and humanity written and so full of
interesting interpretations that anyone who
likes to know the inside of things cannot fail
to find it worthy Of attention. We learn, for
example, that Joffre court-martialed so gen.
erals on charges ranging from incompetency
to cowardice. He was concerned with winning
the war, not with leniency. At crucial point
of the German advance he said: mo act of
weakness can be tolerated"
He pursuaded Field Marshal French to full
cooperation with the allied troops and the two
became warm friends. He reveals the fact
that there was friction between French and
Kitchener. Other frictions are also reported
not strange, considering the numbers of officers
associated in the allied armies and the causes
of nerve irritation and chances for differences
of opinion Because he wished to write frankly,
Joffre stipulated that the book should not be
published until after his DEATH and that then
nothing which he had written should be
changed
In an appendix, by Col. S j. Lowe, D. S. O.,
O. B. E., the story is told of the campaign to
take the supreme command of the French
army of the Near East from Marshal Joffre
which resulted in his resignation of his post
of commander in chief of the French armies.
He selected Foch to be his successor. Frank H.
Simonds has said of Joffre that he was mot
only the greatest Commander in chief of the
World War but also, as the chief of general
staff, the superior of the elder Moltke himself"
BULA MATARI: STANLEY, CONQUEROR OF
A CONTINENT. BY Jacob Wassermann New
York: Liveright
CTANLEY'S exploits belonged to the period
when Jacob Wassermann was an adolescent
and the great explorer was the hero of both
boys and girls the more adventurous ones)
of that generation. There we're other pioneers
in African exploration but none who were ac-
tuated by such insatiate fervor, such determine
ton, Stanley. His search for Livingstone
and dramatic discovery of him and the "Emin
Pasha puzzle" make an almost unbelievable
tale The real, or original, name of the man
later known as Henry Morton Stanley, was
John Rowlands. "Bula Matari" was his name
among the African natives.
John Rowlands was born in North Wales,
between 1910 and 1912, never knew anything
Of his father, and saw his mother only two
or three times" He was cared for, after
fashion, at first, by unwilling relatives, then
at the age Of was sent to the ST. Asaph Union
Work House, an institution of the "Oliver
Twist" type. He died in London suburb and
the Dean Of Westminster refused to allow
Stanley to be buried in Westminster Abbey"
Between the birth of uncertain date and the
burial in small village churchyard, there was
q life of 63 years of wandering, hardship mis-
understanding and bewidering achievement,
which puzzled nearly every one. Luck usually
seemed against him, yet what he set out to do
was more frequently accomplished than not.
He never counted costs. His rank as an explorer
has been hard to determine, but it is generally
acknowledged that his crossing of Africa from
East to West, including his seven months voy-
age down the Congo was his great exploit It
ranks with Columbus voyage and with other