Little Cornerstone

". . . And so, Messieurs, between a pear and some cheese, we have just laid the little cornerstone of a European federation; discreetly, between a pear and some cheese--which doesn't, you know, diminish at all the importance of the event."

Thus with a twinkle and a contented gastronomic sigh, Prime Minister Aristide Briand of France spoke to correspondents in Geneva last week, after a luncheon sure to be recorded as historic.

Not all the heads of the 55 states represented at the Assembly of the League of Nations had been invited--only those from the 27 countries broadly classifiable as "European"*. As a jovial host to these diplomatic neighbors M. Briand had unfolded a little further his imposing scheme for a "United States of Europe" (TIME, Sept. 16).

What astute B'rer Briand really wanted was to get from his guests an endorsement of his scheme which should be unanimous, however vague. Therefore the food and wine were of first importance. No gourmet himself, M. Briand had the menu prepared by M. Aime Leroy, a noted epicure who is also French Consul-Genera] in Geneva.

MENU

Frivolites Brillat-Savarin

Saumon de la Loire grille

Sauce Bearnaise

Cotelettes d'agneau aux rognons

Morilles `a la creme

Perdreaux de Beauce a la broche

Escortes de roi de cailles

Salade Argenteuil

Crepes du convent

Fromages

Fraisettes des bois

Vin du Glacier Chateau-Latour

Chateau Haut-Brion 1919/-

Champagne Louis Roederer brut 1919

Grand Fine Champagne 1896

Speeches at the luncheon were ostentatiously decreed "secret"' by M. Briand, perhaps to heighten press curiosity. Copious "leaks" revealed however that statesmen-guests representing Belgium, Poland, Chechoslovakia, Jugoslavia and Rumania --the allies of France--said that they would favor establishment of a ''United States of Europe" in the form of a federation both political and economic. The Germans, Spanish, Dutch and Scandinavians wanted a purely economic "U. S. E." The British, Italians, Hungarians and Albanians were understood to have taken an attitude courteous but noncommittal. Finally "between a pear* and some cheese" M. Briand rose. Would they all authorize him, he asked, to send a circu- lar memorandum and questionnaire to their governments, inviting collaboration and suggestions as to the form which a "United States of Europe" might finally take? It was little enough to ask -- after such a luncheon. Unanimously the guests voted as Host Briand wished--a mere gesture, but without something of the sort there could never begin to be a "United States of Europe."

Questioned by a U. S. correspondent as to whether he would "solicit" Soviet Russia to join his prospective Union, M. Briand bristled visibly. "The word 'solicit'," he snapped, "has an aristocratic air not in keeping with the democracy of the League of Nations. ... I won't say whether Russia will be 'solicited' or not. ... It will be very probable that this new institution will be open to all European nations:"

Seemingly considering that he had done a good week's work in obtaining the lukewarm informal acquiescence of 27 nations. Prime Minister Briand presently left Geneva, returned to Paris, received the formal assent of his Cabinet to what he had done. Then he went off to his farm at Concherel on the coast of Normandy for a brief vacation. "I shall probably take a short sea trip in a very small yacht," he said, "the smaller the better, for the sea was my first love."/-

Work Done by the League Assembly during the week included:

Jugoslavia and Peru were elected for three years to the semi-permanent seats on the League Council vacated this year by Rumania and Chile. Poland was re-elected.

The proposal that the League should work for lower European tariffs made by British Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald during his flying visit to the League last fortnight, was praised and seconded by the Scandinavian countries.

"We should make haste!" cried Finance Minister Ernst Trygger of Sweden. "If we do not soon lower the tariff walls that are stifling inter-European trade it will be too late. As our Swedish proverb well says, 'While the grass is growing the cow dies'."

As the first concrete result of the antitariff debate, delegates representing 17 minor nations signed a convention mutually abolishing all customs dues on "hides and bones" after Oct. 1 next.

P: Jugoslavia is the outstanding European producer of opium. The chairman of the League's somnolent anti-narcotics committee is Jugoslavia's swarthy Constantine Fotitch. Last week he reported to the Assembly on means of checking the opium traffic, spoke with eloquent circumlocution, repeated several times "we must wait and hope."

* Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Denmark Esthonia Finland France Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary Irish Free State Italy Jugoslavia Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Rumania Spain Sweden Switzerland

/- The only flaw in a perfect gastronomic symphony. The Chateau Haut-Brion of 1919 is definitely to light for the true connoisseurs of such heroic, full-bodied, red grands vins, and a surprising number of bottles of this year have not kept well.

*Strictly speaking there were no pears but delicious fraisettes des bois, tiny wildwood strawberries.

/- At 67 M. Briand is a bachelor.