"
We lunched with General Petain and his etat-major. A charming and most
interesting addition to the party was M. Forain, the famous French
caricaturist, and now one of the chief instructors of the French Army in
the art of _camouflage_--the art of making a thing look like anything in
the world except what it is! He has established a series of schools all
along the French front where the _poilus_ learn to bedeck their guns and
thoroughly disguise them under delicate shades of green and yellow, with
odd pink spots in order to relieve the monotony. Certainly the
appearance of the guns of the present time would rejoice the heart and
soul of the "Futurists." It was most interesting to hear him describe
the work in detail and the rapidity with which his pupils learned the
new art. For one real battery there are probably three or four false
ones, beautiful wooden guns, etc., etc., and he told us of the _poilus'_
new version of the song "Rien n'est plus beau que notre Patrie"
("Nothing is more beautiful than our country "). They now sing "Rien
n'est plus faux que notre batterie" ("Nothing is more false than our
battery").
It was M. Forain who coined the famous phrase "that there was no fear
for the ultimate success of the Allies, if only the civilians held out!"
I was much amused at M. Forain's statement that he had already heard
that a company had been formed for erecting, after the war, wooden
hotels on the battlefields of France for the accommodation of
sightseers.
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