"American Arguments"

Not in the least annoyed at being called "L'Ameericain" is Prime Minister Andre Tardieu of France. He glories in his crisp nickname, exploits it cleverly. Last week there were rumblings against his Cabinet in the Chamber of Deputies, irate complaints about his brusque methods. Instead of retreating, M. Tardieu charged.

"Tiens, Messieurs!" he cried with an engaging smile, "ne tirez pas au pianiste! Don't shoot the piano player! Il fait de son mieux. He's doing the best he can. That, gentlemen," he added confidentially to his somewhat mystified hearers, "is an American argument. That is what they used to say in American frontier towns. Voyons, Messieurs! With what do you reproach me? The only two laws which have been passed since my Government came into office [TIME, Nov. 11] had the support of five-sixths of the Chamber. Shall I make another argument? 'Don't you dare disown me when I bring you your own babies under my arm.' "

Pacified and intrigued by such unanswerable "American arguments," the Deputies next day gave the Tardieu Government a vote of confidence, 331 to 167. Paradoxically, Tardieu the pseudo-American proclaimed later in the week a policy in regard to the Hoover-MacDonald Five Power Naval Conference which might prove obnoxious to many U. S. patriots. Quizzed at a joint session of the Chamber's Naval and Foreign Affairs Committees, the squarejawed, pugnacious Prime Minister rapped: "No final decision will be taken at the London Conference. It is merely preliminary to the Disarmament Conference of the League of Nations at Geneva, where a definite agreement will be sought."

As was expected, U. S. Secretary of State Stimson was quick to quash this League talk. "American participation in the Five Power Disarmament Conference," he wrote, "will be separate, distinct, and apart from the League of Nations."*

Tardieu will himself head the French Delegation at London, with his great and famed Foreign Minister Aristide Briand in second place, and Minister of Marine Georges Leygues, whose whiskers seem as wide as the seas themselves, in third. Though M. Briand is nothing if not conciliatory, he shares with M. Tardieu and most Frenchmen a shrewd wish to link the U. S. in disarmament with the League.

"France has always supported the thesis that limitation of armaments can only be effectively secured within the terms of Article VIII of the League Covenant," said B'rer Briand last week.

* The U. S. note accepting Britain's invitation to the Conference described the latter as "a discussion which will anticipate the problem raised under Article 21 of that [the Washington, 1922] treaty, as well as broaden its whole scope."

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