NEW HOURS
Need for opposition

When we read the speech that Mr. Mac Donald delivered the day before yesterday in the Commons, we are very struck by the place held in the latter's mind by public opinion not only in England, but in France. .

Nobody forgot the incident, we learned in Paris one morning, the day after the Checkers meeting, that the Foreign Office, forgetting to invite France to the Conference of July 16, invited all the other Allies on the bases. of a memorandum which set out purely British views in formal and serious contradiction with French views.

The opposition press of our country, and it alone, first revealed the fact by vigorously protesting against the discourteous procedure, and against the very substance of the thesis which dealt the most direct blow to our pretensions.

This emotion was most legitimate. I saw a high-ranking official from the Quai d'Orsay laughing about this, who, no doubt to pay court to the master of the place, pretended to believe that the indignation manifested by the independent press was in response to nothing, that the incident did not exist.

And in fact the supporters of the Herriot ministry, not admitting any contradiction, proclaimed that everything was going well, that after all we could not fall out again with England and that the best thing was to go through what she wanted. We do this justice to Mr. Herriot that he was more clairvoyant than his friends. Really, the surge in public opinion suddenly informed him of what he had not seen at the Checkers through the smoke of the cordial pipes: that they were tying his hands and feet. And, calling Mr. Mac Donald to Paris to save the Entente, he had the technicians of the Quai d'Orsay prepare this memorandum over which we fought for thirty-six hours, but a large number of suggestions of which were were retained by the British Prime, himself struck by the vigor of our protests.

Victory of French public opinion, beneficial utility of the opposition which, neglecting the immediate ministerial interest, comes to the aid of the public interest alone, this is what the affair of recent days has proven, and what is loyally recognized Mr. Mac Donald himself. We are aware of having thus rendered a famous service to Mr. Herriot by saving him from the quagmires where his friends saw him getting stuck while shouting to him that he had never walked so straight.

This is how, even at the time of the Poincaré cabinet, whose attitude was however much more reassuring, criticisms like those of Tardieu, when they were not entirely unfair,. forced the powerful of the day to take a salutary look at themselves.

But, as a general rule, the parties in power, wherever they come from, do not like contradiction. An opponent for them is an adversary. Ah! how convenient the censorship of the war regime was

LEON BAILBY