The Cannes Conference was necessarily brought to an abrupt end.
Before leaving Cannes Mr. Lloyd George made an im- portant statement about his intentions. He emphasized the necessity for expanding the League of Nations into a Wm ld Association of Nations, and insisted upon the urgent need of proceeding with the scheme for the great Economic Conference at Genoa. M. Poincare, who undertook to form the new French Ministry, told the Parliamentary delegates who visited him on Friday, January 13th, that he was " evidently not expected to form a political Ministry." " No one," he said, " seeks to disguise the gravity of the situation. The times through which we are passing are just as grave as those of 1914. Unity is more necessary than ever." We may take some encouragement from these words. As we have tried to explain in a leading article, M. Poincare, ardent Nationalist though he is, will probably not push Nationalism to extreme lengths now that he has exchanged the position of the free critic for that of the leader of the Government.
