It would be idle to pretend that the country has
received Mr. Baldwin's speech at Plymouth on Thursday, the 25th, with satisfaction, or even with equanimity. Much had been expected, and something was undoubtedly given. The Prime Minister is not the man to balk an issue, and he faced the great twin problems of European chaos and English unemployment with—to say the least —an attempted directness. He spoke first of foreign affairs, and was able to tell us that he was in negotiation with the Allies as to the summoning of a Conference on Reparations; • and had obtained the promise of the American Government that, should America be invited by all the Allies, she would not refuse her co-operation. He left the subject with the assurance that he was pressing M. Poincare to accept such a Conference.
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