Into the Stretch

A thousand policemen in three cordons jammed the short distance between the Chamber of Deputies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week. More police and Republican Guards were on reserve in the Gare des Invalides nearby. Precise reporters announced that it was the largest massing of police at the Chamber since that memorable day in 1926 when the people of Paris attempted to dunk Prime Minister Edouard Herriot in the Seine. Word had gone round that an attempt was to be made on the life of Aristide Briand, Foreign Minister.

One evening 300 Royalist students marched toward the Chamber shouting "Death to Briand." They were quickly dispersed. The real attack came inside the Chamber, not outside, and it was not aimed at M. Briand's life. Hour by hour, as the day approached when the National Assembly must choose a new President of France, gruff, sleepy-eyed Br'er Briand loomed larger & larger as leading candidate. His enemies selected a shock squadron of eight orators under Deputy Henry Franklin-Bouillon to blast him.

Centre of their attack was the projected Austro-German Zollverein or customs union, which Frenchmen suspect, probably accurately, is only a first step toward a complete Austro-German political union (TIME, March 30, April 6). Anti-Briandists insisted that as Foreign Minister he should have foreseen, should have prevented the announcement of the Zollverein. Deputy Georges Scapini, always potent in argument because of the sympathy aroused by his War blindness, cried for a greater show of force, a firmer foreign policy. M. Franklin-Bouillon introduced a motion: "Resolved: That for five years M. Briand has constantly been mistaken in his forecasts as well as his facts." Others accused him of "leading France into another war."

While the President of the Chamber jangled his big brass dinner bell for order, Aristide Briand climbed into the rostrum to reply. Scarcely glancing at the red leather portfolio of notes before him, Br'er Briand, calm, self-assured, talked for an hour and 45 minutes. He reviewed his entire career as Foreign Minister, he claimed full support for all his acts from the two most potent French politicians, Raymond Poincare and Andre Tardieu. He ended with a burst of brilliant Briandism:

"I shall take full precautions and I shall maintain peace so long as I have the honor to be where I am. It has been charged against me that it is I who by my weakness am preparing for war. There are people who say and write that. Eh bien! Behind them are the people of France, who do not believe it!

"You too as Frenchmen desire peace, and those who desire peace and seek it are never dishonored."

The end was full victory for Br'er Briand. The Chamber voted confidence in the Cabinet, 430 to 52.

Hesitation. An official nomination from all the Left parties was Br'er Briand's for the asking, but with only four days before the presidential election, he suddenly turned coy. To a delegation of Deputies he rumbled in his mustache:

"Messieurs, I am greatly honored, but I must decline to be a candidate for the Left parties exclusively. If I am to be a candidate, I must be a candidate of all parties, of France as a whole."

Many observers believed that slouchy Aristide's hesitancy was genuine. Nomination was his for the asking, election was more than likely. To be President of France, with the Palais de I'Elysee for a home, $144,000 as salary and expense allowance, would be a comfortable, honorable existence, a high climax to a distinguished career, an honor that few Frenchmen would refuse. On the other hand it would mean that Aristide Briand must retire from active politics at the age of 69 (Georges Clemenceau was a potent figure at 88) and at a time when the map of Europe is one great rash of international irritations for which the presence of peace loving Aristide Briand in the French Foreign Office has long been a soothing poultice. He promised last week to give his final choice 48 hours before election day.

Draft Doumergue? At the week's end there were only two avowed candidates for President of France: white-whiskered, mildly conservative Paul Doumer, President of the Senate, and Brandy Distiller Jean ("***") Hennessy, candidates of the Opposition parties. M. Doumer was practically sure of the Senate's vote, was fairly sure of election against any one but Briand. As a candidate, *** Hennessy looked hopeless. Anti-Briand strategists talked seriously of drafting plump, smiling President Gaston Doumergue for a second term. "Le bon Gastounet" issued no I-do-not-choose but remained as coyly silent as any Coolidge.

After communing with himself over night, Br'er Briand finally cast his die, accepted the nomination. At the same time he announced that whatever his status next week, whether he is president-elect of France or not, he would take train once more to sit in his accustomed seat on the Council of the League of Nations at Geneva. And he delivered a telling blast at the critics who blamed him for doing nothing to stop the Austro-German Zollverein.

"To this next meeting of European countries," said he, "France will go with a constructive plan for the absorption of the excess harvests of these countries, for financing their agriculture by loans, and for the organization in Europe, which is totally without it, of a system of production and exchange."

In other words the Briand way to combat Zollverein is to offer Germany and Austria something better, perhaps a general European cartel based largely on wheat. To maintain a balanced exchange of wheat and manufactures throughout Europe, the plan provides for a system of reciprocal tariff rebates between those countries which are buyers of wheat and exporters of manufactured goods and those which are exporters of wheat and importers of manufactured goods.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.