From an Old Soldier

A retired U.S. Chief of Staff talked to reporters on his 79th birthday. General Peyton C. March's pointed goat-beard had gone grey; but his eyes were sharp and blue as ever, his tongue still as acid as in 1918, when even the dread "March smile" was enough to burn holes in his subordinates. During World War I, General March was the superior officer and most watchful critic of the A.E.F.'s General John J. Pershing.

Looking back over his own 33 Army years, the nation's almost-forgotten soldier was content last week that the U.S. had finally come to recognize the importance of the Chief of Staff's job ("the old Prussian military 'brain trust' system"). Looking ahead, he had some tart advice for the American people:

"We Can Lose this war right here at home thinking it's almost over. I'm against censorship. Tell the people the truth. They've got to know how tough it is, anyhow. . . . This country is in for a shock. . . . The war hasn't even started. Wait until Germany and Japan begin fighting on their own soil. . . .

"Air Power? Good. But the British said there was nothing left of Hamburg and then had to bomb it 119 additional times. The military works are underground. Essen? Hitler is a fool if he hasn't moved the Krupp works underground into Austria, and left empty factories for the bombers. . . . There'll be 6,000,000 fighting men underground when we reach Japan....

"Island-Hopping makes me sick, too. . . . I'm for Eisenhower. I'm for MacArthur. . . . You can't whip Germany by whipping somebody in Senegambia. I'm a 'cross-Channel' man, myself, and I think we've finally got the right idea in an all-out Western Front attack."

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