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The recent Tardieu memorandum to the Powers seriously jeopardized the Conference in advance (TIME, Jan. 6), by dragging in such issues as "Freedom of the Seas" (which Statesmen Hoover and MacDonald had agreed is too inflammable to touch) and by disparaging the Kellogg Pact, which they months ago announced would be the cornerstone of their Great Peace (TiME, Oct. 21). If hard, kinetic, calculating M. Tardieu does not retreat at London a long way from his earlier positions there will be nothing to do but make a pact of less than five signatories, without France, or call the Conference a failure.
As the Prime Minister of France, crowned with the laurels of great achievements as Minister of Public Works,* crowned again with a large measure of success at The Hague Conference (see p. 25), it is natural that Andre Tardieu should shine in a white halo of dazzling, electric, go-getting virtues. But his portrait has also been done in black by the European publicist Simson Carasco, no liar though he somewhat exaggerates:
"André Tardieu is corruption personified. He is the typical professional patriot that is to be found in every country. Furthermore, Tardieu endangers the peace of France both at home and abroad. A certain French politician has said of him that he resembles a pig in his enjoyment of filth and dirt, and his very name lends itself to a play on words: 'Tardieu,' or 'dieu des tares,' meaning 'god of imperfections.' One of the deputies in the Chamber said to him publicly, 'There are certain individuals whose dishonesty is universally recognized but who remain unpunished. You. Mr. Tardieu, are the last man in the world who has any right to accuse another of being a thief.' Poincare himself once wrote, ironically, 'I do not dispute Mr. Tardieu's ability to give me lessons in politics and morality. . . .'
"During the War, the great patriot Tardieu went to America to buy ships for France but what he really did there still remains a mystery. He was also the man who, together with Klotz, the finance minister, liquidated the American stocks in France when the War was over. Poincare has characterized this liquidation as follows: 'Of the $2,933,000,000 that France spent in America on the War, $1,840,000,000 went into illegitimate profits.' The man responsible for this was Tardieu. And in conclusion we must also remark that it was he and not Klotz who said to the Chamber of Deputies on September 3rd, 1919, when asked who would make good the losses incurred in buying American goods, 'Germany will pay.'
"In the documents from the Russian secret archives which L'Humanité published in 1923, it appears that Tardieu received regular payments during the years of 1912 and 1913 from the secret fund of the Russian government, to support Russian policy in the columns of Le Temps, where he wrote the leading articles on foreign politics, and, as a true servant of the Tsar, attacked the French ambassador in Saint Petersburg. . . ."