With this amount of official material, rumour has run riot
in the French Press. There is a general tendency to talk of a Franco-Anglo-Belgian Pact having been concluded. As a matter of fact, the only basis of this seems to be that Mr. MacDonald repeated what Lord Balfour and many other Englishmen have said (which is, after all, a platitude), that in the event of unprovoked aggression by Germany, France and Belgium would find Great Britain by their side as in 1914. But perhaps there is a measure of truth behind the statements of the French Press. In a most important interview which Mr. Norman Angell had with M. Herriot, and which is published in this week's New Leader, we find stated categorically the lines on which M. Herriot is scheming for a solution to the question of French security :— " You want to know on what principle we shall continue our search for security. I reply, the principle of the League of Nations. Under Articles 10, 16, 21, we propose that the Allies should make a common and mutual treaty of assistance, and then, finally, when certain existing difficulties have been overcome, offer to make Germany a party to that treaty, offer to her its advantages and its obligations."
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