Joseph Gallieni becomes minister of war

On 30 October 1915 General Joseph Gallieni became France’s minister of war in the new government of Aristide Briand. He replaced Alexandre Millerand, who had gone with Viviani’s government. The president signed the decree of appointment late in the evening of 29 October. Since August 1914 Gallieni had been military governor of Paris, and in France he was regarded as one of the architects of the victory on the Marne. The politicians hoped that a general of such authority would put the much-criticised military administration in order and calm parliament.

A minister in spite of himself

The first to approach him was the prime minister, René Viviani, who was still trying to save his government. On the evening of 23 October he summoned the general to the foreign ministry and asked whether, if necessary, he would accept the portfolio of minister of war. According to the notes kept by Gallieni’s secretaries, the general listed three objections: he knew nothing about politics and disliked it, he could not make speeches, and on top of that he was a domineering man who would not put up with endless discussions and committees. Viviani replied that the Chamber needed a man of action, that the deputies from Paris praised the general and that he was very popular. In the end Gallieni, called to serve for the good of the country, placed himself at the prime minister’s disposal.

The same day Viviani asked the commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre, whom he would recommend as minister if the ministry were to go to a soldier. According to President Raymond Poincaré, Joffre replied that nine generals out of ten would make very bad ministers. Asked about Gallieni, he first said “perhaps”, and after a moment’s thought a clear “yes”. The choice was a delicate one, because relations between the two generals had been cool since the Battle of the Marne, and Gallieni, subordinate to Joffre in 1914, was now as minister becoming his superior.

When Viviani failed to reconstruct his government, Briand assured Gallieni that he would keep all his predecessor’s promises. The general, however, made no secret of his reluctance. As his entourage recorded, he said he would go to the ministry “like a dog being whipped”, and on a photograph of himself sent to a friend, General Weick, he wrote: “Minister in spite of himself”. He reminded Briand of his health: since the beginning of the war he had not had a single day’s rest, and his old colonial malaria still made itself felt.

The first days

Even before taking office Gallieni had gathered opinions on the state of the ministry. He concluded that his predecessor had not provided the army with enough ammunition and equipment, had not organised the medical service well, and that aviation too was working badly. On 29 October, at Briand’s request, Poincaré asked the general to leave Joffre freedom in the conduct of operations and in appointments to commands at the front. Gallieni willingly promised this and showed the president a cordial letter in which he assured the commander-in-chief of his full support. That same evening the two generals met at the Élysée Palace. “We were told to embrace, which on my part was not difficult,” Gallieni later related phlegmatically.

Poincaré soon noticed that the new minister kept the government far better informed than Millerand had. Gallieni at once took up the question of gas masks, which had proved inadequate during the German gas attack at Tahure in Champagne at the end of October. On 2 November General Michel Joseph Maunoury, almost blind after a severe wound, agreed to take over his former post of military governor of Paris. The harmony between the minister and the commander-in-chief did not last long, however. At the beginning of 1916, in connection with the Battle of Verdun, Gallieni came into sharp conflict with Joffre, and in March 1916, gravely ill, he resigned. He died in May of the same year.