Paris, Dec. 4.
As though General Joffre had not enough responsibilities already on his shoulders, he has been given others, Until the end of last month, he was officially considered as the officer commanding the French armies in the northeast of France. This implied that he had nothing to do with the operations in the Dardanelles or the Balkans. A Presidential decree has now made commander-in-chief of the French armies, 00 that he has supreme control of the national forces wherever they may be engaged in The decree is based upon the following report from General Galliéni, the War Minister, to the President: "Article 1 of the decree of October 38, 1913, provides that the Government, which has charge of the vital interests of the country, alone entitled to decide the political objects of a war. If the conflict extends to several frontiers, it is for the Government to say which i the} principal adversary. It is, consequently, for the Government to "portion the means of action and resources of all kinds, and to place them at the entire disposal of the generals entrusted with the chief command at the various seats of war. Experience of the present war, which is taking place in several different theatres, has shown, however, that the unity of direction indispensable to the proper conduct of operations cannot be obtained unless there is, at the head of all the armies, a single leader responsible for the military operations pro-Perly so-called."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.