Well known and admired as General de Gaulle is in
his capacity as leader and inspirer of Free Frenchmen, the average Englishman knows comparatively little of his inherent qualities. The little book (De Gaulle's France, Simpkin Marshall, 2S. 6d.), which Mr. James Marlow has put together, is eulogistic to excess, but one or two of the statements of fact it contains throw an instructive light on General de Gaulle's personality. In the critical days of June he urged M. Reynaud, if he must move the Government from Paris, to move it not to Bordeaux, but to Brittany, where with the support of the British and French navies a bridgehead might be held from which the war might be carried forward against Germany again in due time ; it is last such a bridgehpad as we shall have somehow to secure before any offensive is possible. Reynaud first agreed, then declared for Bordeaux. The other point brought out is that General de Gaulle was almost the only French commander consistently successful in the field in the fighting of May of this year, a fact emphasised in a striking tribute paid to him in an Order of the Day by General Weygand soon after the latter became Commander-in-Chief. I am glad to hear that the most Important of General de Gaulle's books on strategy is soon to be published in English. * * * *
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