Messages inspired and uninspired as to what M. Laval will
discuss and refuse to discuss with Mr. Hoover have come in daily like a kind of political log from the ' Ile de France ' westward-bound from Havre. Now the French Prime Minister is safe on American soikand the two men who could do more for the world than any other pair, are surveying that world and deciding .what lies within the sphere of the immediately possible. M. Laval is still something of an unknown quantity, 'but all that is known of him is in his favour and he has made a better impression in Germany. than any other French statesman of recent years. Both he and Mr. Hoover have the shadow , of impending elections over them, but the movement in France is far more likely to be towards the Left than, towards the Right, and ,the Prime Minister, who has shown no sign of lacking courage, has no reason to fear the political consequences of a progressive spirit in relation to disarmament or debts. Not,, indeed, that the Washington conversations are likely to result in any definite decisions in either field— except perhaps regarding an extension of the moratorium. That is neither their intention nor their probable outcome, What is possible, and it would be of enormousimportance if it did happen, is the announcement of some accord between the. President and the Prime Minister on the calling of an international conference on the_ financial situation,
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