"Fail!"

A Frenchman took a big black paint brush last week and did his best to write in the bright lexicon of the Hoover-MacDonald Five-Power Naval Conference the four-letter English word "Fail!"

To write it in French was not enough for Prime Minister Andre Tardieu of France, who borrowed $3,340,000,000 in the U. S. as French High Commissioner during the War and vaunts his nickname of "L'Americain" (TIME, Nov. 11). M. Tardieu knows that at least 99 million out of 119 million U. S. citizens are imperfect in their French, and that the State Department at moments of stress is capable of considerably toning down its summary of an unwelcome diplomatic note.

Therefore the note which France sent in duplicate to all the naval parley Powers last week was handed out in an official English translation to U. S. correspondents at Paris, was handed out to Washington newsmen next day by the French embassy, but was not delivered to the State Department until four days afterwards.

Since President Herbert Hoover has caused to be publicly made known that he is vexed when people write to him and give the letter to the press before he replies (TIME, Aug. 26), it almost seemed last week that L'Americain had deliberately set out to double-vex the President. His action was applauded by the French Chamber of Deputies. Soon afterward the Chamber appropriated $50,000,000 to build seven submarines, six destroyers, one battle cruiser, four auxiliary ships and to buy a goodly supply of torpedoes and shells.

Yardstick Across Knee. To appreciate the French note one must recall that when President Hoover's disarmament plan was first broached its two chief points were: 1) reduction, not mere limitation of armaments; and 2) reduction according to a mathematical formula, the "Hoover yardstick." Furthermore the principal achievement of Messrs. Hoover and MacDonald at Washington was their public joint statement exalting the Kellogg Pact as the cornerstone of peace and disarmament, and their private decision that the question of "freedom of the seas" should not be raised at the London conference.

But the French note asserts that to arrive at "naval agreement presupposes an understanding on the question of freedom of the seas" and says:

"The British Government has stated that the Government of the United States and themselves based their conversations on the Paris Kellogg Pact.

"The Paris Pact is based on the force of public opinion, which is great . . . but it cannot be looked upon as sufficient in its present state to guarantee the security of nations.

"It was this consideration, no doubt, that prevented the British Government from contemplating a substantial reduction in their naval armaments and the American Government from giving up the prompt execution of their latest naval program. . . .

"It is upon Article VIII of the covenant [of the League of Nations] that the French Government intend to base reductions of their armaments. It is, indeed, upon this basis alone--a basis which does not imply a prior application of mathematical ratios [the "Hoover yardstick''] . . . that it would be possible, in their opinion, to work out an agreement."

Such words are nothing short of first, reproaching the President with abandoning his major premise, reduction of armaments, then breaking the "Hoover yardstick" across one's knee, and finally waving the red rag of the League of Nations at a Republican to see if he will charge.

Mr. Hoover did not charge last week. Instead he sent his most trusted diplomatist, Hugh Simons Gibson, U. S. Ambassador to Belgium, hotfooting to Paris to parley with Prime Minister Tardieu.

Though mercilessly destructive in the main, the French note contained a brief constructive suggestion for a Mediterranean naval accord between France, Britain, Italy and Spain--a country not invited to the London parley. Since October, Spain has waited hopefully for an invitation. Spurred by the French note, she last week virtually demanded admission, Dictator Primo de Rivera citing "Spain's duty to intervene . . . because of her geography and history."

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