Murky Magic?

Frenchmen spent the week in panicky expectation of whatever Finance Minister ("Wizard") Caillaux was about to produce from beneath the cloak of secrecy cast over even the least important of his doings.

Correspondents ruefully discovered that with the recent advent of M. Caillaux (TIME, July 5) the Finance Ministry could now be expected to deny at eve its morning statements to the press. Amid this aura of uneasiness and suspicion, the franc sought a new low, 36.88 to the dollar.

M. Caillaux was suspected chiefly of attempting to negotiate long term credits backed by the gold reserve of the Bank of France with Messrs. Benjamin Strong and Montague Norman, governors respectively of the Federal Reserve Bank of Manhattan and the Bank of England. Both gentlemen remained quietly at Antibes, French Riviera, throughout the week, informed news gatherers that their health was rapidly improving in that salubrious climate. According to despatches they conferred daily by telephone with M. Cail-laux's agents.

Meanwhile Deputy Andre Tardieu, a somewhat unattached champion of the Right, set out to hamstring whatever negotiations might be going on between M. Caillaux and foreign bankers, among whom there was even mentioned Dr. Schacht of the German Reichsbank In order to embarrass Caillaux, Deputy Tardieu relentlessly interpolated Premier Briand before the Chamber, demanding assurances that the Finance Ministry was not negotiating secretly in such a way as to tie the Chamber's hands before the Cabinet's fiscal program was even submitted for debate.

M. Briand, evidently embarrassed, waxed wrathy. He was attempting at the time to secure a vote of confidence on a rather equivocal ministerial declaration. Cornered by M. Tardieu, he virtually bartered the assurance that no such negotiations were taking place for a meagre vote of confidence: 292 to 130, with 155 abstentions.

The Cabinet's impending fall was freely predicted, and M. Tardieu was somewhat prematurely touted as M. Caillaux's successor. His record is scarcely inspiring, though he proved himself for many years a useful henchman to M. Clemenceau. His only ministerial experience was gained in 1919-20 when he held with distinction the portfolio of Devastated Regions. As everyone knows, he came to the U. S. in the role of French High Commissioner (1917-19).