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Fatal Luncheon. Exactly what was said over the chops at Chequers remained a mystery last week, but correspondents observing the gravity with which Prime Minister Tardieu motored out to lunch, the comparative optimism with which he returned, made shrewd guesses which embarrassed statesmen refused to deny: frightened at the thought of being left out of a naval treaty, M. Tardieu had apparently insisted that France had no intention of wrecking the conference, pleaded for more time to adjust international differences. Prime Minister Macdonald retorted that Franco-Italian differences were all that are holding up a five-power pact. Conversation then centred on a collateral Franco-British-Italian treaty whereby each power guaranteed each other's possessions in the Mediterranean.
Briand. Avoiding the Tardieu-MacDonald-Stimson tangle for a while, reporters found the veteran Aristide Briand who has sat at more conference tables than any man at the parley, in a contemplative mood last week.
"There has been some misunderstanding about what I have tried to do here," said he puffing a rank Maryland cigaret. has been said that I sought protection for France. Yes, but that was not all. We have sought to reinforce the machinery for peace in a way to benefit all nations. . . .
"Now we have the Kellogg pact which may be called the penal code of the nations. . . . So far so good. But when the communities of a nation fix their penal code they do not leave it to their officials simply to reprimand the breaker of that code. No sir, they want something more done about it.
"So we must get around to that phase of enforcing our international penal code. Don't tell me that such plans are promoting war in the name of peace. C'est idiot! Do you call the hangman's noose the promotion for murder? Of course not, it is the deterrent for murder. What we want is a sure deterrent for war. . .
"I would rather plan to prevent wars than to humanize them. It does not do .any harm, but how much good does it do? It is like saying that in the next war soldiers may stick their bayonets in two inches but no further."