Others were more sympathetic to Bonnet. Lord Halifax wrote in response to Vansittart's memo that: "I am disposed to think but I know it is a minority view that M. Bonnet is not so black (or so yellow) as he is often painted". Joseph Paul-Boncour, a political opponent of Bonnet's, spoke of his great "kindness and help". The editor of the "Le Petit Parisien", Élie J. Bois, felt that Bonnet had "the makings of a good, perhaps a great, foreign minister". On another occasion, Bois, who disliked Bonnet, wrote of Bonnet's "features... instinct with... the intelligence of a fox on the alert". Bonnet's friend, Anatole de Monzie, commented: "Whilst very courageous in the long run, he is much less so in the heat of the moment... Because he is reticent, he is accused of lying or of deceit. False accusation... Bonnet is discreet so that his policy may be successful... There is in him an obvious ability, an excessive flexibility. He jumps too quickly, on to the bandwagon, on to all bandwagons. What does it matter to me?... If he aims for the goal and means to reach it by devious means, I care only for the goal. Now I note that having adopted the peace party, he is sticking to it with all the foresight of a statesman". The French historian Yvon Lacaze has argued against the popular image of Bonnet as a slick and amoral opportunist, and instead attributes Bonnet's views about avoiding another war with Germany to his memories of service in the trenches of World War I.