Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-15
France and Italy in Accord.

The governments of France and Italy,
It is now indicated, do not regard the
conversations between President Hoover
and Ramsay Macdonald, the British
prime minister, with the alarm which
has been pictured in certain quarters.
M. BRAND, the French prime minister,
has sent word of the qualification Of the
government Of his country over the sue
cess of Mr.. Macdonald's visit to the
United States. The word was conveyed
through the French Ambassador In
washington, Paul Claudel, to Secretary
stimson of the State Department. Fur
thermore, it is now revealed that the
Ambassador of italy, Mobile de MARITIME,
also has called upon Mr.. Stimson with
congratulatory expressions regarding
the Macdonald visit here, although he
was not formally instructed by his gov
eminent to do so.
The attitude taken by the French
prime minister, through M. Claudel, Is
most gratifying. President Hoover and
Prime Minister Macdonald have been
at great pains to make it clear that
an agreement between their governments
could only be regarded as beginning
of an understanding involving all the
nations. There has not been the slight
est scintilla of evidence or of reason
to believe that an Anglo-Saxon ALI
ance was to grow out of the converse
tons between the President of the
United States and the prime minister
Of Great Britain. It has been evident
ever since the failure of the naval con-
ference at Geneva in 1927 that some
basis of agreement must be reached
between the United States and Great
Britain If the cause of limitation of
armament and reduction of armament
was to prosper. 1t was in search Of
such basis of agreement that the gov
ernments of the two English-speaking
countries have sought through their
principal representatives to eliminate
the old cause of disagreement. Happily,
they have been successful.
In this moment of success, it would
have been most unfortunate for the
cause of world peace and international
understanding If France and Italy had
determined to remain aloof. or had
there been inculcated into those nations
q suspicion that an Anglo-Saxon alli-
ance was seeking to dominate the world.
France and Italy, like the United
States and Great Britain, have signed
and ratified the treaty Of Paris, re-
nouncing war as an instrument for
settling international disputes. Prime
Minister BRAND was a leader in the
movement for such a treaty, at first
as between this country and his own,
and then under the recommendation of
this Government. for a treaty taking
In all the nations of the world. The
ratification Of this treaty by flfty-six
nations has. in the opinion of President
Hoover and Mr.. Macdonald, created q
vastly different situation in the world.
M. BRAND must take the same view,
earnest advocate as he was of this pact.
The hope is lively here that both
France and Italy now will accept the
British invitations to the naval con-
ference to be held in London next Janu-
airy. A failure of these two great
continental powers to accept would have
cast gloom over the negotiations at
the start, even though America, Britain
and Japan had been prepared to go
ahead with an agreement under those
circumstances.