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White and black, then, are the colors of the Key Man at the Naval Conference. If he fails to get what he wants, he will not have the excuse of Aristide Briand, "The Golfer of Cannes." In 1922 at the Cannes Conference, Golfer David Lloyd George persuaded his French colleague to play a round. Tout Paris, which can become deadly serious as easily as gay, was outraged that two Prime Ministers should stoop from mighty issues to address a pair of little white balls. And the derisive soubriquet "Le Golfeur!"helped M. Briand to lose his sixth Prime Ministry. Since then French times have changed. Frenchmen are now accustomed to golf. Should U. S. Secretary of State Stimson, who has leased a British estate with a private nine-hole course, invite L'Américain, who is a determined linksman, for a friendly get-together round during some strained moment of the Conference, Tardieu will not be able to beg off on personal or political grounds, though of course there is always the weather.
Parity, Pacts, Ships. Issues waiting to be hashed, and partial achievements already parboiled by the chief cooks of the Conference, were:
Parity
Anglo-U. S. President Hoover, Prime Minister MacDonald and spokesmen for all political parties in both countries champion the principle of placing the U. S. and British navies on a basis of absolute parity.
Franco-Italian. A conciliatory offer by-Dictator Mussolini to accept parity of the Italian Navy with the French was flatly rejected by Prime Minister Tardieu last week. Correspondents were significantly reminded at the French Foreign Office that in 1914 the Navy of France surpassed that of Italy.
Pacts
Five-Power. President Hoover's men will most urgently insist on a Five-Power Pact but face the alternative of a Four or even a Three-Power Pact, should France and perhaps Italy balk. Less than unanimity would mean that Powers which signed would have to do so with the reservation that they could tear up the treaty and start naval building again if menaced by competition from a non-signatory. Indeed even a Five-Power Pact must contain some such reservation to protect the signatories in case Soviet Russia should start building warboats. The French professed last week that they wanted a "short" Five-Power Treaty, to be signed at London, for a duration of five years, then to be absorbed into a General Disarmament Treaty of the League of Nations which the U. S. might by that time have joined.
Mediterranean Locarno. In Rome last week Dictator Mussolini rejected a plan for art Anglo-Franco-Hispano-Italian Mediterranean Treaty of Naval Security proposed by Prime Minister Tardieu from The Hague. Il Duce suggested a bilateral Franco-Italian pact instead, but L'Américain would have none of it. Ever since the War, the chief aim of France has been to get her security guaranteed by a group of Powers, which explains her passionate fondness for the League of Nations.
Kellogg. The Tardieu memorandum disparaging the Kellogg Pact (see above) drew the sharp retort from London last week that "His Majesty's government desire to remove the error upon which this [the French] observation rests." In effect Ramsay MacDonald told Andre Tardieu that Britain thinks well enough of the