THE BATTLE OF FRANCE
impersonal, national, whereas a big majority would
have meant a personal success for Reynaud/
The following day I saw Reynaud myself.
Walking round his office he disclosed in that voice
of his that rings out like the crow of a fighting-cock,
what sort of situation he had discovered upon taking
office. It was frightening. Tanks, he said, existed on
paper only. Anti-tank guns, which the army needed
badly, were still in the factories. The Germans had
200 divisions, perhaps 240. We had barely 100.
Daladier was making things very difficult for the
Government.
'But/ I said, 'Daladier must be a man who loves
his country. At times he makes some admirable and,
as far as Pm concerned, inspiring speeches/
'Yes/ Reynaud said, 1 believe he wants to see his
country victorious: but he also wants me to fail/
On the Thursday, I went to the Academie
Francaise. The Academie. was at work on the
dictionary* The word aiguiser passed without
comment, but aigidseur was suppressed and the
definition of the word aile led to a passage of arms
between Abel Bonnard and Georges Duhamel. The
previous edition had called a wing *a muscle*.
*It*s quite ridiculous/ said Bonnard, fia wing isn't
a muscle: it's a limb/
cOn the contrary/ said Dr. Duhamel, *a wing is a
muscle. What you eat in the wing of a chicken is
the muscle, no more and no less/
170