FRANCE: Death of Barthou

Hardly had France drawn its easy breath (see above) than it was knocked breathless by the assassination of her Foreign Minister.

If to Papa Doumergue has gone the nation’s gratitude for maintaining the Republic against internal discord, to Louis Barthou has gone wide-eyed admiration for spectacularly advancing in a few brief months, the diplomatic position of France. Early this week, as he welcomed to France a Balkan King with whom he was about to make a crucial deal, an assassin shooting at the King brought Death to him.

For strengthening its army, as Premier before the War, Barthou was called “the Savior of France.” After the War he dropped out of sight. Last winter, to its surprise, France found that it had obtained for its Cabinet of National Union not merely a name of greatest prestige, but its most active Foreign Minister in years.

Toward restoring the delicate European balance of power upset by Hitler’s ascendancy, M. Barthou’s old hand worked surely, swiftly. Most spectacularly, he made friends with Soviet Russia, drew Russia into the League. He had also helped Stanley Baldwin to decide that Britain’s frontier must be on the Rhine. In a brilliant swing around Europe he had kept the wavering Little Entente in France’s pocket. His trip up the Danube was a triumphant progress ending in a rousing visit with King Alexander of Jugoslavia who was destined to die with him last week. He had advanced an Eastern Locarno Pact which would throw a “ring of steel” around Germany, and he even got France on trading terms with King Alexander’s bitterest enemy Benito Mussolini.