French Dirge

If the British will fight before they will let the Nazis take Danzig, nothing seems more certain than that the French will too. Last week the French Government was not yet sure of its ally, however, and French statesmen, like the British, were not so specific over Danzig as the Paris (or London) press thought they should be. Nevertheless, the Government was ready to put the nation overnight on a war footing.

> Premier Edouard Daladier keynoted the crisis in a speech of such solemn brevity it sounded like a funeral rite. "For 20 years," he warned the Chamber of Deputies, "the situation in Europe has not been so delicate nor so grave as now. On the other side of our frontiers there are 3,000,000 men mobilized. In their factories the manufacture of armaments is being pushed forward feverishly. Reports keep reaching us of maneuvers and troop concentrations. It may be this summer that the issue between those who desire the pacific collaboration of nations and the attempt at domination of some of these peoples by others will be joined."

To this dirge M. Daladier, preparing to meet the situation without parliament, packed off his 618 Deputies for summer vacations which, he warned, "may be briefer than you think." He then had them herded into the lobbies, where a new gas mask enclosed in a grey-green tin box was issued to each Deputy, clinching the points of the Premier's speech.

>With a great show of hustle-bustle Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet received Polish Ambassador Julius Lukasiewicz and French Ambassador to Warsaw Leon Noel. Later he summoned German Ambassador Count Johannes von Welczeck to the Quai d'Orsay, and word was subsequently passed out to the press that M. Bonnet had told Count von Welczeck that France was fully backing her Eastern European ally.

>A national defense loan was floated, and the French Army opened its ranks to foreigners who wish to pledge during peace that they will fight "for the duration of the war." The Premier called a meeting of the Cabinet, which approved "measures to strengthen the action of France and to end any misconception of the firmness of her resolution." Then appeared a very incongruous announcement that Germany and France were about to initial an agreement to increase trade.

But while everybody last week was pledging France to defend Poland, nothing was said about defending Danzig. The Poles consider Danzig a part of Poland. But whether the French or British do remained last week a question mark.

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