Would someone ask the French to please stop surrendering?

[Drake Tungsten]

As if it's needed...

This week, with Paris seeking to steer the choice of a new U.N.
secretary-general to a French-speaker, Cameroon publicly warned
France not to veto an African choice to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali if
he is not a French speaker.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/freafro.htm

The longstanding French insistence that anyone appointed to a high international post should speak French -- one of the working languages of NATO and the UN, European Union and WEU -- creates a mixture of amusement and irritation. One of the best examples of the latter has been Mr. Elleman-Jansen, who sought to explain during a press conference that oui, he spoke French. "I think Hans-Dietrich Genscher would make an excellent NATO secretary-general," he said in a press conference. "Mais il ne parle pas Francais (he does not speak French). That poses a problem, n'est-ce pas?" Indeed it did. Neither Elleman-Jensen nor Genscher got the top NATO post. Mr. Solana, the former foreign minister of Spain, whose French was rusty but still functioning, became the consensus candidate and got the job.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/12_15_96/feature.htm