Foreign News: Millionaires in Rupture

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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."