Millionaires in Rupture

Sizzling on the Chamber of Deputies grill last week lay The Deal of Hoare & Laval, which in London fortnight ago caused the resignation as British Foreign Secretary of Sir Samuel Hoare (TIME, Dec. 30). From Paris to London to sit in the Commons gallery during that fracas dashed the dynamic French Deputy who for months has been trying to upset the Laval Cabinet in order to dislodge France from the gold standard and start inflation or devaluation of the franc. Last week M. Paul Reynaud was back in Paris and, although no expert in foreign affairs, had primed himself to achieve his economic ends, if he could, by whipping up against Premier Pierre Laval a popular storm such as that which overwhelmed Sir Samuel Hoare.

In vivid terms Deputy Reynaud described his impressions in London of high British moral repugnance to Hoare & Laval. "If we become separated from Britain, it means war!" he cried. "The German press does not leave us in ignorance of that! . . . Remember Hitler's words in Mein Karnpf. The driving of a wedge between Britain and France, the isolation of France--that is to be the German signal for war! Laval, by his lukewarm support of the League, would make Der Führer's fondest dream come true. . . . We have to choose between Italy which is in rupture with the League Covenant and Britain, the guardian of that Covenant. In opposition to Mussolini's well-known saying that 'War is to a man what maternity is to a woman' the slogan of the League is 'Halt the aggressor!' "

With a good two-thirds of the Chamber roaring cheers at this effective speech, Deputy Reynaud sat down amid the congratulations of friends who assured him that within a few days he was likely to be Premier and could then take France off the gold standard.

At grim Premier Laval, at bay last week on his front bench, scores of Deputies screamed "Resign! Resign!" Hysteria mounted until a reference to "my country" by the Premier subjected him to a torrent of demands that he speak instead of "our country." This he thereafter did with evident galling bitterness of soul. In their element were the forces of French antiFascism, led by millionaire Socialist Leon Blum. "Mr. Premier' he crushingly observed, "I am surprised, nay I am amazed, to see that you are still 'Mr. Premier.' There are some mistakes which a public man does not have the right to survive."

"Doom of Laval' Because of the difference between Britons and Frenchmen, the Laval Cabinet was not able to defend itself by the methods which the Baldwin Cabinet successfully employed. Both Cabinets had been pledged, as a whole and up to the hilt, to secure immediate peace between Italy and Ethiopia by means of negotiations taking their point of departure from The Deal of Hoare & Laval. In the House of Commons fortnight ago the Prime Minister was never in danger because his Conservative Party held an absolute majority and not even Stanley Baldwin's worst enemies ever predicted that he, as the engineer of the Tory political machine, could suffer a backfire of moral indignation from its stout innards. Not being his own Foreign Secretary, Mr. Baldwin could and did make a scapegoat of Sir Samuel Hoare. After that he stated the future Ethiopian policy of His Majesty's Government in terms so ambiguous that even this week new Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden had not yet made them clear. In effect Squire Baldwin announced. "We stand where we stand'' and confidence was voted him.

Premier Laval, being his own Foreign Minister, could not make himself his own scapegoat. He is the engineer of no political steam roller but an Independent. During 1935 the French Chamber, in which there is no solid majority, has been on the point of overthrowing him for one reason or another nearly every week, not because he is unpopular but in the ordinary workings of French politics in which Premier after Premier is ground exceedingly small. Last week there were beyond question in the Chamber more than enough Leaguo-philes, Devaluationists, Socialists, Communists and people-who-simply-do-not- like-Benito Mussolini to assure the Cabinet's overthrow then & there on the first vote. LAVAL FALL TODAY EXPECTED headlined the New York Times, while the Herald Tribune echoed DOOM OF LAVAL SOUNDED.

The ("Dead") Deal. It was with the earthy calm of his matter-of-fact peasant origin that millionaire Lawyer Pierre Laval opened his remarks upon The Deal.

^ To those who charged him with putting France at the mercy of Germany by alienating Britain's sympathy, he pointed out that Britain, as the price of her original adherence to The Deal, exacted a blank-check promise of armed assistance from France. Later Britain's Prime Minister called The Deal "dead." but the French blank check is still alive and Squire Baldwin has every intention of trying to cash

t the instant Britain considers herself menaced by Italy.

'In the execution of Paragraph 3 of Article XVI of the League Covenant," dryly observed Pierre Laval, "I have not hesitated to pledge France's aid to Great Britain on the sea and land and in the air, if she is attacked by Italy in the course of application of sanctions. . . . Why should I not frankly confess my fear and dread of an incident of the sort which history often produces, an incident which could drag France into a war which I have done everything to avert. The more rigorous the obligations imposed upon France by the League become, the more I have felt bound to endeavor to put through a peaceful settlement. ... It is understood that the Paris proposals [The Deal] are dead, but the road to conciliation remains open. . . . My will is not broken because it has proved a failure! . . . I shall persevere, whatever happens, in ardent, untiring action for peace." This was throwing down the gauntlet with a vengeance--a supreme act of po- litical courage. With an entire world of sympathy for poor little Ethiopia and the poor big League of Nations pullulating around him, Peasant Laval could almost be seen to dig his toes into the earthy al- ternatives of peace & war as he tenaciously clung to the thesis of The ("Dead") Deal: peace by negotiation now and. since Italy is today the stronger, therefore peace now at Ethiopia's ex- pense. Finally Pierre Laval asked for a vote recording the Chamber of Deputies' confidence in his entire foreign policy, which clearly is based on attempted resurrection of The Deal. Close was the vote, but the Premier won a majority of 20. which later rose to 43 on a vote of confidence in his Government. He still stood in grave risk of defeat by a subsequent vote--i. e. he stood where he has stood through 1935. If still Premier at midnight on Dec. 31. Pierre Laval can well consider himself France's Man Of The Year.

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