"Tiresome Drudgery"

At a SHAPE correspondents' luncheon last week, the guest of honor, hard-boiled Marshal Alphonse-Pierre Juin, was asked: "Are you considering becoming a candidate for President of the Republic?" Replied Juin, the only living Marshal of France, and NATO's central European chief: "I should not give up my title as Marshal for the sake of another which carries with it more tiresome drudgery than real power." By teatime the remark had reached the ears of President Vincent Auriol, who chooses not to run again when his term expires next January. "Well," the President snapped to his Cabinet, "I'll spare myself one piece of tiresome drudgery—I'll never invite the Marshal to the Elysée Palace again."