13 MAY 1922, Page 2

M. Barthou's speech, it will be seen, lends confirmation to

part at least of Mr. Steed's version of the Prime Minister's remarks. Nevertheless Mr. Chamberlain, on behalf of his leader, told the House of Commons on Monday that the Times account was " a deliberate and malicious invention." Mr. Lloyd George at Genoa described the report as " the ravings of a person insane in his desire to wreck the Conference." M. Barthou in a letter to the Prime Minister also repudiated the report :— ' " You did not say that the Entente between Great Britain and France was at an end, nor did you say that your advisers were pressing you to come to an understanding with Germany."

Here, then, is a direct conflict of evidence between Mr. Lloyd George and M. Barthou on the one hand and Mr. Steed on the other. It illustrates the extreme danger that lies in one-sided reports of private conversations, and it cannot be left where it is.