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Show I Made Grand Officer in Order of Legion of Honor After Chemin des Dames Battle. HAS LONG CAREER Begins to Serve Country When Twelve Years of Age Constantly in Service. PARIS, Nov. 30. (Correspondence of the Associated Press.) General Maistre, who commanded the French army that conquered the last remaining remain-ing positions of the famous Gnemin des Damos and thus earned promotion to the rank of Grand Officer in the Order of the Legion of Honor, began to serve his country when he was 12 years old by purloining powder from the Prussian Prus-sian soldiers who were quartered In the house of his parents in the Franco-Prussian Franco-Prussian Avar in 1S70. The boy who was afterward to lead the French army in one of the hardest fought battles bat-tles of the great war, laid away the stolen powder for gunning expeditions In the forests near his home. There was some of this borrowed ammunition ammuni-tion left when the present war began. Sixth of his class on entering the military school of Saint Cyr, -Maistre was first when the class graduated. He was third In his class at the war school. Lieutenant Maistre's career began with a mission to Gratz, Austria, where ho became initiated into the practices of the Kriegspiel, which ho helped introduce in-troduce at home. Captain in 1887 and major in 1898, he was named professor of general tactics at the war school. As lieutenant colonel, Maistre commanded com-manded the 79th infantry, one of the celebrated regiments, of Nancy, and as colonel was transferred to the 106th Infantry, called the "regiment of steel," forming part of the "iron division" that has distinguished Itself on nearly all the most familiar battlefields of the war. Brigadier general in 1912, Maistre was appointed a member of the "committee "com-mittee of the general staff" and at the beginning of August, 1914, was chief of staff to General Langle do Cary, who commanded the Fifth French nrmy in the battle of the Frontiers, the battle of the Marne and at the beginning begin-ning of the battle of "Verdun. y Maistre became a general of division just before the battle of the Marne and was placed in command of the Twenty-first corps. He won the cravate of commander of the Legion of Honor in that battle at the head of the Twenty-first corps, afterward leading it in the battle of Notre Dame de Lorette, after which he relieved the Twentieth corps at Verdun. In the changes of command consequent conse-quent upon the reorganization of the general staff after the partial offensive offen-sive on the Chemin des Dames in April, 1917. Maistre was placed in command of an army. To him is due a large part of the crgdit for forcing the Germans to abandon the formidable formida-ble positions they had organized on that ridge which commanded tne region re-gion of the Aisne between Solssons and Craonne. oo The South Wales mining area, sometimes some-times called the storm center of British Brit-ish industry, has decided not to strike if the government proceeds with a scheme for "combing out" more men of military age for service in the army. |