NEWS OF THE WEEK
(AN Friday week M. Sarrien, the French Premier, announced • kl his resignation, and the other Ministers followed suit. ' The President thereupon entrusted to M. Clemenceau the task of forming a new Cabinet. Of the retiring Ministers, M. Bourgeois declined to return to the Foreign Department owing to bad health, and M. Poincare, the Minister of France, refused a portfolio on the ground of a difference on financial policy with the new Premier. The Department of Finance has accordingly been entrusted to M. Caillaux, M. Briand continues as Minister of Public Instruction and M. Thomson as Minister of Marine, while a new Department, the Ministry of Labour and Hygiene, has been provided for M. Viviani, a Moderate Socialist. M. Millerand and M. Etienne are not included, but six members of the late Cabinet have portfolios. M. Clemenceau, the "breaker of Ministries," has formed a very strong one of his own, which in many respects is more homo- geneous than its predecessor. In essentials, however, the policy of the Government remains unaltered. We have dealt elsewhere with M. Clemenceau's remarkable personality, and will only say here that we trust his Government will receive the confidence of the Chambers and the country.
