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Terms of the pact signed in Paris last week make it operative within the covenant framework of the League of Nations, unless the League Council fails or declines to act, whereupon nations which sign the pact will render "aid and assistance" to block "unprovoked aggression." The treaty runs for five years and unless denounced by one of the signatories at the end of the fourth year, runs indefinitely. It was accompanied last week by important pourparlers for Franco-Russian cooperation, economic as well as military. The French and Soviet general staffs will shortly exchange key experts. More important, France contemplates a colossal barter in which she expects to take Soviet oil, ore and minerals in exchange for 3½ billion francs ($231,000,000) worth of French rails, railway rolling stock and road-making machinery necessary to put in prime condition the strategic railways and highways of Russia.
With the faint scratching of gold pens in Paris last week an era closed—the era of Tiger Clemenceau who tried to throw a cordon sanitaire around Russia and starve the Bolsheviks out as one would exterminate lice. Even last week deep French distrust of the Red masters of Moscow caused Foreign Minister Pierre Laval to receive more praise in Paris for his elaborate ringing of the League into the Pact than for the clauses with teeth which made Berlin shiver.