Evening star., 1939-07-30
Gen. GomeIin, Five Feet Six,
Looms Large in Europe
French Commander
Works Closely
With DuIudier
BY CHARLES FOLTZ,

Associated Press Foreign Correspondent
PARIS.-A white haired, blue
eyed soldier, who stands little over
5 feet 6 in his army boots, looms
large on the European scene both
in his own right and for his friend
ship with Frances Premier.
Premier Edouard Daladier. with
more political power in his hands
than any previous Premier of the
Third Republic, has one main goal
to increase Frances already great
military might.
Gen. Maurice Gustave Gamelin.
with more military authority than
any Frenchman since Napoleon, has
the same goal.
They work together.
When M. Daladier found an zap
peasement" group inside his own
cabinet in September, 1898, he sent
Gen. Gamelin to London to tell the
British that France had the finest
land army in Europe despite the
weakness of her air force.
From the first Gen. Gamelin, like
other army leaders, was opposed
to the "appeasement" policy and the
part he played in the Munich crisis
increased rather than decreased his
prestige in the long run.
Heads Unified Command.
M. Daladier, himself reputedly
opposed to the "appeasement" policy,
began to lean more and more heavily
on Gen. Gamelin's advice.
BY M. Daladier's decree last June
a unified command of French air,
land and sea forces was created
with Gen. Gamelin at its head.
M. Daladier is not only Premier,
but holds all the defense portfolios
under his immediate command as
minister of national defense. His
conferences with Gen. Gamelin be-
came more and more frequent.
The Premier has an elaborate and
tapestried office in the former en-
bassy of the Austro-Hungarian En-
pire on the Rue st. Dominique, but
he can usually be found working
in his smaller Office in the war
ministry.
The entire program of the Dala-
dier government is pinned on the
question of national defense. FL
nance, economy, labor, all are SUI
bordinated to national defense
needs. Gen. Gameln is the man
who tells him of those needs.
Reinforced by this friendship,
Gen. Gamelin too has stepped out.
He spent an active life in an army
which has strictly followed the mo
politics" rule, but M. Daladier's
program has changed that. Poll
tics have turned toward the army
rather than the army toward poll
tics.
Soldier First of All.
Gen. Gamelin, Fochs pupil and an
invaluable aide to Joffre, has been
known in past years as distant and
retiring, man who was inclined to
be shy away from the military coun-
Gil tables.
He has changed.
"Gamelin is soldier first Of all"
said an associate, but now every
thing is translated into military
terms"
Now Frances first soldier goes fire.
quently to diplomacy banquets and
war anniversary demonstrations
with speeches which border on poll
tics.
At Verdun, where he spoke at a
veterans rally last June, he slapped
hard at the peace by concession"
group.
Facing certain ambitions we
know that respect cannot be pur-
chased by concessions" he said.
Words like that would have been
of little note if a politician said
them, but when Gen. Gamelin talked
Europe sat up and took note.
Diplomats who had heretofore
paid little attention to the soldier
began to look back at the career of
the leader. They found his mill