2 JANUARY 1926, Page 9

NEWS OF THE WEEK

BRIAND has proved once more that safety often -4,-7-1-* lies in daring. His Minister of Finance, M. Doumer, is _disliked by many of his fellow-Ministers of the Left partly for himself and partly for his conservative notions otfinanee, These Ministers of the Left, who theoretically believe in bleeding the " capitalist " though they have never been able to agree upon a scheme, formed a cave and tried to bring M. Doumer down even before he reached the stage of presenting his financial scheme to Parliament. M. Briand, however, took up a position of defiance with dramatic effect. He told the members of the cave, M. Painleve, M. Chautemps, and the others, that he wished to retain M. Doumer as his Finance Minister and that he refused to let his Government collapse as the result of this internal movement, The malcontents could stay or go as they pleased, but he himself would remain Prime Minister and M. Doumer would remain Finance Minister.