Locarno Treaties Signed
The Scene. A huge room be-frescoed in tarnished red and gold —the Great Hall of the British Foreign Office. At either side three tall windows, dull-bright with winter sunshine. Down the centre a huge table, covered with blue baize and vermilion-splashed by three official despatch boxes. Around the table a group of the most distin- guished statesmen in Europe—all clad in mourning (for England's Dowager Queen). At smaller tables other statesmen and ladies—like- wise in black. At one end of the room eight rows of seats, tiered like a grandstand, for the press. Above and over all, the unearthly white-green glare of mercury-vapor arcs. Conspicuous upon a red-draped raised platform, several uncouth persons in sweaters or shirt- sleeves, cranking unceasingly at cinema cameras. Such was the setting, dramatic and bizarre, amid which the famed Locarno Treaties* were signed at London last week.
The Preliminaries. Sir Austen Chamberlain, recently knighted British Foreign Secretary, headed the table, with Premier Baldwin on his right, and on his left Sir Cecil Hurst, famed British jurist, whose duty it was to officially certify the credentials of the plenipotentiaries: M. Briand, Premier and Foreign Minister of France; Signor Scialoja, head of the Italian delegation to the League of Nations; MM. Vandervelde, Benes and Skrzynski, respectively Foreign Ministers of Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland; Chancellor Luther and Foreign Minister Stresemann of the German Reich.
Speaking in French, the official language of the assembly, Sir Austen first read a greeting from King George, and then lauded extempore the now familiar "spirit of Locarno."Mr. Baldwin, ever at ease, tilted back his chair and hooked his thumbs in the sleeveholes of his vest. One by one, the plenipotentiaries rose and spoke for a moment on the great step toward peace they were about to take.
Only the delegates of the Reich spoke in German. The characteristics of the speakers were described† as follows:
Dr. Luther: "Twinkling-eyed . . . loudly guttural."
Herr Stresemann: "Perfectly happy."
M. Briand: "Pounding on the table . . . glancing shrewdly at his hearers . . . the best orator of all."
M. Vandervelde: "Calm, incisive, quietly confident."
Signor Scialoja: "Day dreaming . . . had to be reminded of his turn to speak . . . voluble."
M. Benes: "A soft, meek voice."
Count Skrzynski: "Suave."
Mr. Baldwin (the only plenipotentiary to speak in English): "His usual self . . . very much the English country gentleman ... as ever, a John Bull."
The Signatures. Sir Cecil Hurst, taking the Rhineland Security Treaty from an envelope, presented it first** to Dr. Luther and Herr Stresemann, who "laboriously affixed their names without flourishes . . .their bald heads like immense pearls under the powerful spotlights."