13 MARCH 1926, Page 4

Immediately after his defeat and resignation M. Briand rushed off

to Geneva, but quickly returned to Paris to take part in the negotiations for a new Cabinet. The President first of all invited M. Herriot to form a Govern- ment, but M. Herriot refused for the magnanimous reason that in his opinion M. Briand was the necessary man for France at the moment. The President then asked M. Briand to form a new Cabinet and in this task M. Briand succeeded in " record " time. On Wednesday he an, nounced that he himself would be Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as Prime Minister. The new Minister of Finance is M. Raoul Peret. M. Malvy goes to the Ministry of the Interior and M. Painleve to the Ministry of War. The personnel of the Cabinet as a whole shows that M. Briand has given up actively trying to please the Socialists. There is a prospect of a Centre Coalition.