Vatican Relations

Debate began in the French Chamber of Deputies on whether or not credits for the French Embassy to the Vatican are to be suppressed.

Premier Herriot is intent upon withdrawing the Embassy to the Pope, in accordance with his election promise. This policy is being opposed by Alsace and Lorraine Deputies in particular and French Catholics in general.

The Government, inherently anticlerical, bases its policy on the fact that the Vatican Embassy serves no useful purpose; moreover, it is against the interference by the clergy in the affairs of state, which the continuance of an embassy would seem clearly to vindicate.

The question is mainly sentimental. There can be no doubt that the French Catholics as a whole desire to be represented at the Holy See; and what they want the Government must sooner or later give them. There is equally no doubt that many French Catholics abhor clerical interference in State matters as much as the anticlerical Government; and it is thus apparent that there is no conflict of interest in maintaining national representation at the court of the Pope and denying Catholic clergy in France the right of playing politics.

In the midst of a burning debate on this subject arose Aristide Briand, seven times Premier of France, to plead with Premier Herriot to recede from his position before it was too late and to warn him that he ran the risk of uniting all French Catholics against him,. He told the Premier that it was often difficult for small countries to reach the Papal ear; and if France were no longer at the Vatican, it would be next to impossible. "We can play the part of Big Brother without much cost and with great profit," he continued, "but if we leave, they will seek other friends to lay their case before the Vatican."

Communist jibes came that "these little brothers were the small borrowing countries of Central Europe."

Retorted M. Briand: "But that (borrowing) is just what your Moscow friends have done and want to do on an even larger scale" That silenced the Communists.

M. Briand went on to say that there were three great international organizations in the world : The Communist Internationale, the League of Nations, the Roman 'Catholic Church. He continued :

"You have just opened relations with the first; you are doing very well with the second; why break off with the third? All of them in a measure are distinct from temporal power. They are three doctrinal internationals." (Cheers.)

Finally he wanted to know why France should not be represented at the Vatican at a time when the U. S.*, Brazil, Japan and other countries were seeking entry. (Prolonged cheers.)

Premier Herriot, his lame leg resting bandaged upon a stool, fidgeted, looked uneasy. The following day, he roundly assailed the Vatican, repudiated M. Briand's advice, said that he had made a decision and would stick by it. (Tremendous applause from the Left benches.)

*The U. S. State Department averred that ex-Premier Briand must have been misquoted.