Evening star., 1932-03-07

Parliament Adjourns.
News of his death was a blow to the
Parliament. Fernand BouiSson. PreSi-
dent of the Senate. broke the news to
the Supper house, whose members stood
in silence.
Premier Tardieu, his voice breaking
with emotion, informed the Chamber
of Deputies.
Both houses adjourned.
1t was disclosed that the stateman's
doctors made their regular call at $50
in the morning and, finding him no
worse than usual, left to make other
calls.
At 11:45 M. BRAND suffered a stroke
and the nurse called the doctors back
Throughout his long Illness M.
BRAND refused to permit his doctors to
issue bulletins because of political rea-
sons and his desire not to alarm his
friends Even when he died the doctors,
by his own direction, told the govern
ment officials first before making their
public announcement.
BRAND was II times premier, 16 times
foreign minister, 4 times minister of
the interior, thrice minister of justice
(Which carries with the office the vice
presidency of the French cabinet) and
twice minister of education. All told, he
held posts in IS cabinets and on March
IA, 1881, celebrated a full quarter CEN
tury of service in official life.
The presidency of the republic was
the only gift denied him by his
fellow parhamentarians. Strangely,
that defeat came after one of his
most dramatic triumphs-an indorse-
ment by the Chamber of Deputies of
his foreign policies after they had been
under prolonged fire by the Nationalist
elements of his country.
The vote encouraged Brands friends
to put him forward as presidential
candidate in opposition to Doumer
even though the election was only four
days away. He reluctantly consented,
but on the first ballot, taken by the
combined Chamber and Senate at Yer
sailles on May 10, 1881, Doumer had a
comfortable lead and BRAND withdrew.
Offered Resignation.
Coming on top of the Endorsement of
BRAND policies by those same parlia-
this defeat hit Europe with
dramatic force. Germany wondered If
France had committed herself to a ces-
sation Of efforts for a complete Franco
German rapprochement and Italy and
remembered uneasily their
positions as guarantors of the Locarno
pact. In Poland, Rumania, Czechoslo-
vakia and Jugoslavia there was a stiff
fening of nationalistic backbones, which
had begun to feel the effects of pressure
from Central Europe for revision of
the peace treaties.
BRAND offered his resignation as for
eign minister, but was persuaded to
continue in Office. League Of Nations
circles hailed this development with
in the broad field of international ac-
cord in which he had won a pinnacle of
his own.
But subsequent developments indi-
Gated that BRAND was losing his hold
on the French imagination. While his
premier, Laval. insisted that the
veteran foreign minister's setback at
Versailles had no political significance,
the prestige of the old warhorSe waned
This was illustrated in late June of
1881, when Andrew Mellon, Secretary
of the Treasury, and Walter E. Edge,
American Ambassador, represented the
United States in negotiations at Paris
aimed at making the debt moratorium
of President Hoover acceptable to
France
The nationalistically minded French
cabinet had given only a conditional
acceptance to that plan. bargaining for
political guarantees from Germany, de-
spite the fact that the Hoover pro-
posal had already been given unquali-
fled approval by Great Britain and
Italy.
BRAND, 1t was reported by we'll in
formed parliamentarians, was for an
equally unconditional acceptance by
France. But he was overruled by Pre-
mier Laval, p E. F1andfn, finance min
lister; Andre Tardieu, minister of agri-
culture, and Andre Maginot, minister
of war.
ViOlOncelIo Voice StilIed.
1t was noticed that BRAND, although
still foreign minister by title, had little
to say in the prolonged conversations
with the Americans. Moreover when
the project came before the Chamber
of Deputies for final vote, he did not
once intervene in the debate.
On other similar occasions he had
been in the thick of the fight defying
his political enemies, arguing with and
cajoling the undecided and finally
sweeping aside opposition by magic of
oratory that was unexcelled in a Par
lament noted for the quality of its elo-
Quence. But this time the famous
'violoncello" voice was stilled.
Then on July 18 Heinrich Bruening
came from Berlin on the first official
visit to Paris of a German chancellor
in 60 years. More bent than ever-his
most vitriolic opponents used to call him
the hunchbacked cat"-with one foot
dragging and leaning on cane, BRAND
fairly hobbled to the station to greet
the German ENJOYS.
There were two days Of negotiations
in Paris and, the following week, a con-
ference of seven powers in London. But
all of them BRAND had hardly
a word to say. Yet two years earlier,
when the Five-Power Naval Conference
met in London, he, although nominally
subordinate to his then premier, Tar
dieu. had been the directing brains of
the French policy.
1t was weary, disappointed. almost
heart broken old man who came back
from the 1881 Debt Conference and on
July 80 he was compelled to forego at
tendance on a cabinet meeting. Prof.
VaqueZ, a noted heart specialist, was
summoned and found BRAND suffering
from high blood pressure, asthma and
insomnia. The prescription was COM
1@A - e.