---
title: John French
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/john-french/
description: 6 verified quotes from John French, Commander-in-Chief, British Expeditionary Force (1914 to 1915); later Viscount French of Ypres, with sources.
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: a First World War field-intelligence collage of trench maps, wireless transmission logs and aerial reconnaissance photographs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-wwi.jpg)

[Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · United Kingdom

# John French

![General Sir John French, 1915](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/asquith-government/john-french.jpg)

[Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gen._Sir_John_French_LCCN2014702050.jpg): Bain News Service, Public domain (PD-Bain; no known restrictions, Library of Congress)

Commander-in-Chief, British Expeditionary Force (1914 to 1915); later Viscount French of Ypres · United Kingdom

On the regime page: [Asquith government](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/asquith-government/#john-french)

6 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=john-french).

1. > “It is a rough war, but the problem it sets is a comparatively simple one — munitions, more munitions, always more munitions; this is the essential question, the governing condition of all progress, of every leap forward.” — March 22, 1915 · Interview Verified (secondary source) — French, then Commander-in-Chief in France, gave interviews in March 1915 about the shortage of shells and guns, at a time when the Government was publicly saying supplies were adequate. He says he did this to put the need before the public. — Interview given by General Sir John French to the Press, 22 March 1915, as quoted by French in 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 355 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)
2. > “I said that the command of the British Forces in France had been entrusted to me by His Majesty's Government; that I alone was responsible to them for whatever happened, and that on French soil my authority as regards the British Army must be supreme until I was legally superseded by the same authority which had put that responsibility upon me.” — 1919 · Book — In his 1919 account of the war's first months, French describes a private conversation with Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, in Paris on 1 September 1914, after the Field Marshal arrived in uniform and announced he would inspect the troops. — Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 100 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)
3. > “I therefore determined on taking the most drastic measures to destroy the apathy of a Government which had brought the Empire to the brink of disaster.” — 1919 · Book — French describes watching the failure of the attack at Festubert on 9 May 1915 from an observation post and the decision he took afterwards. The book appeared in 1919, after he had been replaced as Commander-in-Chief. — Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 357 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)
4. > “I immediately gave instructions that evidence should be furnished to Colonel Repington, military correspondent of The Times, who happened to be then at Headquarters, that the vital need of high-explosive shells had been a fatal bar to our Army success on that day.” — 1919 · Book — In the same passage French states that, after the Festubert attack, he had evidence given to The Times's military correspondent, and sent his secretary and an aide-de-camp to London with the correspondence on ammunition. The Times article followed on 15 May 1915. — Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 357 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)
5. > “When this was reported to me I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the local commanders to strict account, which resulted in a good deal of trouble. I have since often thought deeply over the principle involved in the manifestation of such sentiments between hostile armies in the field. I am not sure that, had the question of the agreement upon an armistice for the day been submitted to me, I should have dissented from it.” — 1919 · Book — French's account of the unofficial fraternisation between British and German troops on Christmas Day 1914 and his order against a repeat. — Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 338 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)
6. > “The Germans glaringly and wantonly set all such sentiments at defiance by their ruthless conduct of the present war; even from its very commencement.” — 1919 · Book — Written in the same passage on Christmas 1914, French contrasts the German conduct of the war with what he calls the chivalry of earlier campaigns, comparing it with the Boers in South Africa. — Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 338 [Source](https://archive.org/details/1914frenuoft)