* * * * Yet as the Cloud of venom
dissolves we can well discern the shape of the cuttle-fish. It was a horrible sight to see Pierre Laval • moving from group to group in the Paris Chamber of Deputies ; • whispering confidences to the journalists ; giving his right hand to one Deputy and at the same moment holding out his left hand to another ; moving rapidly, with sly side-glances and simian twists, among the crowded lobbies ; distributing promises, promotions,
bribes ; exploiting the affection of the French for cleverness until it overshadowed their belief in principles ; exuding corruption from every pore. It was a horrible experience for those who had to nego- tiate with him to realise the utter empiricism of his methods, the complete absence of any stable principle or any consistent purpose. I have been told by one British negotiator of the despair which assailed him when he had to discuss with Laval the imposition of sanctions against Italy at the time of the Abyssinian crisis. ' The Englishman was seeking to convince Laval that the issue was not essentially an Italian issue but one which would affect the whole future of the League of Nations, an issue in which the thoughts and feelings of the British people were deeply concerned. Pierre Laval made no attempt to conceal his impatience at this, to him, most irrelevant argument ; he drummed upon the green cloth with irritable brown fingers ; and then he began to grin slyly, muttering to him- self again and again the word "Ababa, Ababa, Ababa." It was evident that the idea had occurred to him that, if he were forced to make a speech in the Chamber of Deputies, he could turn the subject to ridicule by playing upon that ludicrous jingle. He was in truth an eel, impervious to the sand of any principle.
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