Evening star., 1941-03-15
Admiral DorIon Is Renowned
As Leader on Land and Sea
Friends Watch Tilt of
Pipe to Determine
His Moods
By the Associated Press.


By the Associated Press.
VICHY. France, March l5.--"I will
let nothing stand in the way of the
French peoples eating"
This statement is typical of the
decisiveness of Admiral Jean Darlan
Frances new strong man on land
as well as sea.
He said this in announcing that
French ships would be conveyed if
the British blockade of France
which he termed "imbecile le'-con-
tinued
His seamanship is a matter of
record.
Back in 1892. during Mediterra-
mean maneuvers, the feet was as
signed the task of trapping 10000
ton enemy" warship which was
''raidng" merchantmen.
For three days the vessels searched
fruitlessly. Then the raider put
into port unscathed 1t was the
flagship Foch, with Admiral Darlan
aboard
The last actual defeat of the
French fleet was by the British un-
der Lord Nelson at the battle OF
Trafalgar, in which Admiral Dar-
lan's great-grandfather, a gunner on
the Redoubtable, was killed.
Says Humiliation Lingers.
Some say this French humiliation
fingers in Admiral Darlan's mind
and accounts for his anti-British
attitude.
(Another and perhaps more
likely version of Admiral Darlan's
anti-British attitude, which is
current outside France, is that he
never could forgive the British
for their destructive pounding of
French warshipS of Oran July 4,
1910, when the British feared the
French vessels would fall into
axis hands0
Admiral Darlan'S grandfather also
was a sailor. but his father deserted
the family tradition for politics and
once served as Minister of Justice.
The admiral has mixed both naval
and political affairs in a busy
career marked by resourcefulness
StubbornneSS and trace OF cocki-
ness which has persisted from his
days as a naval gunnery school
graduate.
Assigned to the French gunboat
Orly, in the Yangtze, Admiral Dar-
Ian, who had headed his class,
boarded the vessel and calmly an
nounced he had come to take charge
of the gunners.
The crew roared in laughter, for
the Orley had no guns.
Admiral Darlan left the gunboat
and took a Junk to Hong Kong,
where he reported aboard the gun
boat Entire Casteaux-which had
guns.
Service in China Sea
Since then he has seen service
three times in the China Sea, in
addition to tours of duty in the
Yangtze, the Mediterranean, Allan
tic, Pacific and the Rhine.
Yet he has never been with the
feet during a major conflict. Rath-
er, it was on land that he served
France during the World War
From 1914 to 1918 he was in COM
mand of a naval battery which
twice helped to save Verdun (where
Admiral Darlan's present chief of
state, Marshal Petain, made his rep
utation), and fought on the Marine,
at Champagne, Flanders and Sa-
lonika.
Repeatedly mentioned for marks
manship, GOODNESS, energy and de-
cisiveness, he was steadily pro-
NOTED
Admiral Darlan's World War
budnes say he once was sent with
Is mer to unload from a train 40
tons of cannon with no unloading
equipment.
Several hours later Admiral Dar-
Ian rode up triumphantly on
steamroller which was pulling a
train of cannon on luggage carts.
The train got ditched several
times. crushed number of saplings
and knocked down a pillar at en-
trance of the arsenal, but arrived
safely.
After the World War, Admiral
Darlan commanded the Rhine flo
tilla for two years during the oc-
cupatIon of the Rhineland. Then
he returned to the Far East until
1925, when he joined the Institute
of Advanced Naval Studies.
Attended London Conference.
Soon afterward, he entered the
French Admiralty He was the
French naval expert at the London
Conference in 1880. by which time
he was a rear admiral, and until
shortly before the outbreak of the
war he continued in the admins
trative branch of the Navy.
Just before the war, the French
government created the new rank
of admiral, and Darlan, then COM
mander of the fleet as vice ad-
miral was elevated to the top place.
When France collapsed in June last
year, the fleet remained the only
undefeated arm Of the French
services.
Admiral Darlan was named Min
lister of Navy in the first Vichy
cabinet, and, Marshal Petain ex-
cepted, Is the only one of the II
original ministers remaining.
Next TO Marshal Petain, Admiral