Fighting France
p. 44 · Read in the full issue
Monsieur Mansard
Dead
Notable Figure in Fighting France
From Our Own Correspondent
Noumea, Sept. 9.
M. EDMOND Mansard, chief officer of the Fighting French Commissariat Department in the French Pacific, died in Noumea recently, following an appendicitis operation.
M. Mansard was an old friend of General de Gaulle, and was living in Tahiti in retirement; and when, in Aug ust, 1940, the people of French Oceania declared overwhelmingly (5,364 to 18) for Fighting France, and the pro-Vichy Governor and high officials departed, de Gaulle asked Mansard to become Gov ernor. M. Mansard was Governor in Tahiti for only a few weeks; then it was announced on November 9 that, owing to ill-health, he had resigned and had nominated his old friend Doctor de Cur ton, to be Governor. Dr. de Curton remained in office until he disappeared in the still unexplained political storm which broke out in Tahiti on the arrival there, in July, 1941, of Commandant Richard Brunot —who came surprisingly to the Pacific, early in 1941, “as a special
envoy from General de Gaulle,” and who as surprisingly departed.
In December, 1940, M. Mansard came to Sydney as the representative of French Oceania at the Copra Conference, called to deal with the situation created by the sudden disappearance of half the world’s copra market. Those who met him there found him to be a man of quiet, simple, courteous ways—a good Frenchman and a good patriot.
He had an extraordinary experience in Sydney. He was walking in the Botanic Gardens on January 1, 1941, when — according to his statement—he was brut ally attacked by a man, who blacked his eye and broke his left arm. Robbery was not attempted: but a political motive was suggested. M. Mansard did not await the end of the conference. He returned to Auckland, and then proceeded to New Caledonia.