The assassin shots that crumpled up indomitable old French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou at Marseille (TIME. Oct. 15) delayed until last week what Germany has most dreaded—consummation of the Barthou-Litvinoff project for a military pact linking the Soviet Union and the French Republic.
Since the two countries are worlds apart in spirit and institutions, the pact was signed and sealed last week not at one more Conference but at the musty but sumptuous old Quai d'Orsay. A Red with the same surname as Catherine the Great's spectacular paramour, Soviet Ambassador to France Comrade Vladimir Potemkin, signed with earthy, peasant-born black nostriled French Foreign Minister Laval a formal Treaty of Mutual Assistance important in itself and epochal in its implications.
These implications are that fear of Adolf Hitler has produced a repetition of the links forged in fear of Kaiser Wilhelm II. A new German leader has, like the young Kaiser who "Dropped the Pilot," forgotten the wisdom of Prince von Bismarck who knew and affirmed that Germany's ultimate safety must be found in friendship with Russia. Today there is nothing but hate-spewing between German Nazis and Russian Bolsheviks—but the world has come a long way since 1914.
The new Franco-Russian pact is not the instrument of Nicholas II and Poincare. It does not exclude Germany. Rather Adolf Hitler, if he chooses to join Russia and France in pledging ''mutual assistance" against "unprovoked aggression," will find WELCOME written on the doormat signed last week in Paris. It specifically takes care of the Hitler crochet which made Der Führer say he would sign up for non-aggression "with any country except Lithuania" month and a half ago. In the new treaty all European countries east of Germany except Lithuania are made eligible and urged to sign. Scratch their heads as they would this week, most neutral European statesmen could see no reason why Germany should not be anxious to sign, unless she in fact is harboring aggressive designs.
In Berlin where the "honor" or potential expansion of Germany is eaten, slept and breathed, no sign appeared that Adolf Hitler would sign. On the assumption that he would not, German editors, despite the close government press control, evinced fear. Said the Berlin businessman's Börsenzeitung: "France has every opportunity to assault us, using her alliance with the Soviet as a lever, without having to fear British intervention." If Germany chooses to sign for Peace, France has no such opportunity.