NEWS OF THE WEEK IT has unforttmately to be recognized
that the visit of M. Flandin and M. Laval to London opens in an atmosphere less ;favourable than prevailed after the Saar mines settlement at Rome and the agreement reached at Geneva regarding the international force for the Saar Territory.. The. Saarlanders' decisive vote, instead of dispelling clouds; has inspired in Germany—not, it is true, in official quarterS., but every expression of opinion in Germany is on official sufferance—various irresponsible demands regarding Memel and Danzig and Austria. None of these must be taken too seriously, but the reac- tions of such manifestations on French opinion are immediate, and as a result France is thinking more than ever about security and less than ever about disarmament. There are, indeed, persistent rumours that at the moment when a draft convention providing for eight months' military service is still before the' Disarmament Con- ference France is proposing (owing to the temporary fall in the numbers of conscripts, who are now those born in the War years) to raise her term of service from one year to two. Both the Eastern Pact desired by M. Litvinoff and M. Laval and the Central European Pact outlined at Rome are hanging fire, and the attempts of Germany to withdraw Poland finally from her association with France are undisguisel.
