27 FEBRUARY 1926, Page 3

M. Briand has deplored the " orchestrated and unseemly polemics

" over the proposal to include Poland—a reference to the British Press—but in our judgment the British Press has shown perfectly sound instincts. Surely, if there had been any definite idea at Locarno that the admission of Germany to the Council implied the admission of Poland the subject should at least have been mentioned. Not a word was said about it. Lord Grey of Fallodon was quite right to put his finger last week upon that fact and to point o it that Germany would be entitled to regard the Polish manoeuvre as sharp practice. At Birmingham Sir Austen Chamberlain remarked that he knew as much about Locarno as anyone, and he felt that the German statesmen were too wise to deny the right of another nation's claim to be considered.