The Four Power Negotiations Only unofficial versions of the conclusions
reached by the French Cabinet regarding the Four Power Pact are so far available, but it is clear that France, as was to be expected, is prepared to accept the Pact only on condition that it is co-ordinated at every point with the Covenant of the League of Nations. Great Britain, Italy and Germany, as leading members of the League, can obviously not cavil at that, but once the principle is accepted very little of the Pact proposal remains. The closest co-operation between the Great Powers of Western Europe is on all grounds, to be desired, but all blocs are regarded with suspicion by States left outside them, and the reactions of the Little Entente Powers and Poland to the Rome proposals were only what was to be anticipated. That does not mean at all that Mr. MacDonald's visit to the Italian capital was either ill-advised or without value. On the con- trary, the effort to secure Signor Mussolini's full eo-operation in the work of European reconstruction, and to clear away any possible misunderstandings in the relations between the greater States, was well worth making, and there is every reason to hope that closer co-operation at Geneva will in fact result. It is only there, if anywhere, that treaty revision can be safely discussed at all.
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