Grand Cordon

Finance Minister Emile Franqui stood stiff, straight, plump and proud, last week, while a deep red grand cordon was adjusted across his breast in the manner of the transverse strap of a Sam Brown Belt. Soon by a gold safety pin there was attached to M. Franqui the highest decoration in the gift of the Belgian Crown--the Order of Leopold. Twinkling it dangled, glittered: a gold edged white enamel cross suspended from a royal crown and resting on a green laurel and oak wreath, at the centre on a black field the golden lion of Belgium, below the motto L'Union Fait La Force. . . . King Albert of the Belgians stepped back from decorating M. Franqui. All the world knows that it was M. Franqui who negotiated the $100,000 000 loan which stabilized the Belgian franc (TIME, Nov. 8). Therefore King Albert warmly eulogized M. Franqui, bade him a pleasant journey to the Riviera whither he departed to recover his health, impaired by his great labors. Before he left Brussels, M. Franqui resigned as Finance Minister, but not until he had drawn up a voluminous memorandum covering every discernible contingency of Belgium's fiscal future.