FRANCE: Just Initialed

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Newshawks hovered about the Quai d'Orsay last week trying to find an official who would talk. Was there a Franco-Russian neutrality treaty under consideration at the Foreign Office? Had it been signed?

At Moscow, Izvestia devoted three Page One columns to a discussion of the treaty. It indicated that an agreement had been reached between the two nations whereby each would maintain a strict neutrality "in the event the other is attacked without provocation by a third power or group of powers." A similar pact exists between Germany and Russia.

Poland, which mortally hates & fears the U. S. S. R., endorsed the idea heartily. For whereas the Russo-German entente is directed against Poland, an agreement between her ally France and Russia would neutralize the threat.

The reason for the canny silence of French politicians was obvious. Foreign Minister Briand knows that it was because of his trips out of the country that the Nationalists kept him out of the Presidency last spring (TIME, May 18).

Finally, at the middle of the week, a trickle of news leaked out. The Foreign Ministry admitted that there had been negotiations with Russia. Because of the illness of Brer Briand they had not been signed. They had just been "initialed."