Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-13
M. Lavaps Troubles.

When Pierre Laval decided the other
day to submit the resignation Of his en-
tire cabinet as the result of War Min
lister Maginot's death and M. BRANDS
failing health, the French statesman
recently in Washington thought it
would be a purely pro lorna transac-
tion He would cross the street from
his own ministry Of the interior to the
presidential palace and, in perfunctory
fashion, return the combined Laval
portfolios to M. Doumer as the mere
forerunner Of reappointment as premier.
But the best laid plans Of mice and
men, including Frenchmen, sometimes
do not pan out. M. Lavars arrange
ments were subjected to almost i'm
mediate disarray yesterday. M. Edouard
Herriot, leader of the Radical Social
lists, declined to accept the foreign
ministership in reconstructed cabinet.
M. Laval had hoped, by inviting the
Herriot faction group into his govern
ment, to enlarge the representation OF
the political parties and form a new
cabinet more reflective Of all shades
OF opinion. He projected that sort OF
q national union" government which
Rene Viviani composed at the outbreak
of the World War in 1914 and Ray
mond Poincare formed in 1925, when
the French financial structure lowered
on the brink of collapse. Laval's pur-
pose was to have the republic repre-
scented at the forthcoming Lausanne
debt conference and the Geneva dis
armament conference by government
typifying both a strong and united
France
M. Iaval's tactics in this latest and
sudden cabinet crisis, now assuming an
importance it gave no signs Of having
only a week ago, suggest that he be-
lieves q new tension is gripping Europe.
The German governments f1at-footed
refusal to go on with reparations Is
largely accountable for stiffening Of
the situation. as far as France is con-
cerned. The end may be the summon
ing Of an even stronger Nationalist than
Pierre Laval to the premiership. Andre
Tardieu, apostle of the Poincare strong
hand school of French politics, would
bound into the picture If political align
ments in the Chamber continue TO make
It impossible for Laval to form coah-
ton government.
M. Herriot's Radical Socialists, mill
tsnt group of eighty deputies, refused
the seductive prefer Of the foreign
ministership for their chief on the
ground that no such crisis" confronts
Parliament as would justify the partys
abrogation Of its principle not to serve
in q union government. Should the
foreign situation become as critical as
M. Lavars maneuvers suggest, M. Her
riots friends intimate that they might
be persuaded to enter cabinet COM
bination, but would want considerable
hand in building it.
There is Enthusiastically more Of STRAIT
Agem than meets the eye in this unex-
pected turn Of the French political ka-
leidoscope. That it is designed TO make
Germany sit up and take notice on the
eve of the Lausanne reparations perley
cannot be doubted. Paris is past mis-
tress in the solution of cabinet crises,
and she will find the key to this newest
one in due course. At best new gov
eminent could hardly hope for more
than four or five months of life, as the
French general elections in May would
In any event bring fresh deal.