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Priest -Admiral Foils Japanese Designs in Pacific Amazing dual career
Carmelite
'Provincial
`To die, perhaps; to capitulate, never' P RIEST.ADMIRAL
D ARGENLIEU.
Somewhere in the Pacific to -day a tall aesthetic Carmelite monk commands the scattered forces of Free France. He does not wear the robes of his Order, but the smart tailor-made uniform of a Rear-Admiral of the French Navy. On his breast glitter the decorations For Georges Thierry of two wars. d'Argenlieu has served his country well, not only as Provincial of a great missionary order, but also a daring, courageous naval commander. Still acknowledging the stern discip line of his religious Order, Commander d'Argenlieu acts in the Pacific under direct orders from General de Gaulle, Free of the Commander -in -Chief French forces. Commander d'Argenlieu belongs to He is an old French noble family. the third of seven children, five boys and two girls. One of his brothers is in the French Navy, and another, who was in the Army, lost his life in the battle for Belgium. The other two brothers are Dominican monks. His two sisters entered the Convent of the "Dames de Sion." His father was an officer in the French
Navy. The young Georges entered the French Naval School at the age of sixteen, following closely on his elder brother, Captain Rene d'Argenlieu. Visit to England. D'Argenlieu became Aide -de -Camp to Admiral de Marolles, and was present, in this capacity, at the coronation of King George V. in 1911. From 1912 to 1914, he took part as a naval sublieutenant in the Moroccan campaign
under Lyautey. Several official expressions of satisfaction, an exceptional proposal for the Legion of Honour and the life-saving medal testify to his merits as a young officer. During the whole of the Great War, d'Argenlieu was in the Mediterranean, on board torpedo -boats, sloops, and patrol -ships and constantly played an active and dangerous part in the war against U-boats The end of this rigorous campaign found d'Argenlieu lieutenant -commander in charge of the patrol -ship "Tourterelle." He was valued by all his superiors as a "first-class officer," "very energetic," "possessing the highest qualifications of a sailor" and "fitted for any mission." Becomes a Carmelite. Nevertheless, in 1920 he entered the ancient Carmelite Order and, for ten years, as Father Louis de la Trinite, devoted himself to his new duties in the monastic life. In 1932 he was chosen by his superiors to restore the old Carmelite province of Paris, which had disappeared in the storm of the Revolution. Elected Provincial of the Carmelite Order, he governed without interruption until August, 1939, effecting changes in some monasteries, building others, and visiting the 60 Carmelite houses attached to his province. Above all, he promoted a vigorous intellectual movement which found expression and renown in the review entitled, "Carmelite Studies," which was so often praised, encouraged and blessed by Popes Pius XI and XII. He gave himself up to the study of the great mystic doctor, St. John of the Cross, to whom he devoted remarkable articles.
Brenac's Tribute. Commander d'Argenlieu met Andre Brenac, Australian representative of
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General de Gaulle, during the latter's recent visit to New Caledonia. M. Brenac, writing to the Free French of Sydney, said of the High Commissioner: "He is a most eminent personality, a man of great valour and great intelligence, a man who knows what he wants and knows how to express it. He is also a very distinguished and courteous gentleman, who receives everyone well and with much simplicity, and knowing how to turn every caller into a friend. I feel convinced that, around his great personality every man of goodwill will gather, every little clan will forget its small differences of opinion, differences
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which tended to them, separate whereas instead they should all get together and pull together towards the one goal: win the war and liberate France. "First and foremost, every man must be ready to defend New Caledonia if she is attacked, to defend her to the hilt, to the last man if necessary, and I know that Rear -Admiral d'Argenlieu can count absolutely on all the New Caledonian men and women to be inspired by his order of the day: " `To die, perhaps to capitulate, never.' The American magazine, "Time," gives the following account of the friar-
admiral:-
SPIRIT IN THE ISLANDS
The Japanese were as mad as little boys who had been denied sticks o_ bubble gum. They had hoped to get the strategic French islands of the Pacific-especially New Caledonia, which might soon prove to be a vital base in the flanking of Australia-as easily as they had got French IndoChina. But Free France, in the person of an admiral who is also friar, denied them that pleasure early in February. Determined to have their gum and bubble it too, the Japanese warned the Admiral to look for trouble. Warned
Tokyo's "Japan Times and Advertiser:" "Japan will not hesitate for a moment to resort to force to stamp out De Gaullists in the Pacific." The Admiral will take considerable stamping out. In wartime he calls himself Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu: in peace time, Father Louis de la Trinite, of the Carmelite Order. In both characters he has been persistent in the extreme. In his spiritual character he entered a monastery in 1920, donned tunic, gir-
dle, scapular, hood and mantle, began
to study the Carmelite speciality, mystical theology. Eventually he became head of the Order in all France. In his temporal character he fought in both World Wars. In June, 1940, he was captured by the Germans at Cherbourg. Three days later he jumped out of his prison train and made his way, disguised as a Norman peasant, to the Channel coast and eventually to London. He led the unfortunate assault on Dakar, where he took some lead in his thigh. After he recovered from his wound in French Equatorial Africa, where he organised Free French merchant shipping, he went to Canada to lecture, back to London to broadcast, and then, on the destroyer "Le Triomphant," out to romantic Oceania to resist. There, recently, he had organised resistance fast enough and well enough to call down Japan's angry warning. Perhaps one reason why the warning was so sharp was because the Japanese (Continued on Page 10.)
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