With Exceptions . . .

Seldom is a treaty stronger than its weakest clause, its joker, its exceptions.

Last week an arbitration treaty between the U. S. and France was signed at Washington by Under-Secretary of State Robert E. Olds and Poet-Statesman-Mystic Paul Claudel, French Ambassador to the U. S.

Was there a joker? Statesmen nodded, but beamed nonetheless approvingly upon the crisp, new document. It does not except from arbitration nearly as many subjects as did the treaty which it replaces, the Franco-U. S. arbitration pact of 1908. Not to be arbitrated under the old treaty were matters involving "national honor," "vital interests," or "a third state"--that is to say the exceptions were so broad as practically to permit either state to refuse arbitration of any case which it did not want arbitrated. The new treaty text, temporarily withheld from publication last week, was announced to provide for arbitration of "all disputes" except those relating to "domestic questions," "a third state," the Monroe Doctrine, or the obligations of France with respect to the League of Nations.