NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AGRAVE Ministerial crisis has arisen in France. The resig- nation of M. de Selves, the Foreign Minister, has pre- cipitated the fall of M. Caillaux, who had already been seriously compromised by the disclosures made before the Senate Com- mittee in its inquiry into the Franco-German Treaty of November 4th. When the Committee adjourned for the New Year holidays it was engaged in discovering on what instruc- tions M. Cambon, the French Ambassador at Berlin, had suggested to Herr Kiderlen- Waechter that "compensations" should be sought in some other quarter than Morocco. On the reassembly of the Committee on Tuesday M. do Selves read documents designed to show that the Congo question was first officially raised at the time of the Agadir incident. M. Caillaux, the Prime Minister, was then closely cross-examined by M. Pichon (the Foreign Minister in M. Briand's Cabinet) on the subject of the Congo-Cameroons Railway negotiations in May, and declared on his honour that no negotiations were conducted independently of the Foreign Minister, and that there never had been any political or financial transactions outside the official diplomatic negotiations. Challenged by M. Clemenceau to say something on the subject, M. de Selves at first remained silent, but when further pressed by M. Clemenceau to declare whether he himself and M. Cambon had been kept informed of all the negotiations and pourparlers between Paris and Berlin ho declared he would not answer the question because he stood between two duties—that of telling the whole truth and that of maintaining the solidarity of the Ministry. M. Clemenceau then electrified the Com- mittee by observing, " You may say this to any one else but not to me, because you have told me the contrary."
