Word: barthou
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Eastern Locarno. Louis Barthou was born the son of a poor tinsmith. His family scrimped to pay for the education that turned him out a brilliant lawyer. All his life he has been a charmer, naturally eloquent, instinctively elegant, yet with plenty of brain power and force. His rise in the Chamber and through the cabinets of men now mostly forgotten was meteoric. In the year before the War he formed his first Cabinet and as Premier boldly forced through unpopular legislation lengthening the term of French military service. This gave la Patrie immeasurably better trained young men to shoulder...
...Poland is wavering, Czechoslovakia stands firmer than ever in alliance with France. This year "Europe's Smartest Little Statesman." Foreign Minister Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia, is taking his turn as President of the League Council. To oblige M. Barthou last week M. Benes paid Russia the unprecedented compliment of popping into his limousine and riding as Council President 20 miles out to Comrade Litvinoff's village. He brought an invitation for Russia to join the League signed by 30 countries whose signatures M. Barthou had obtained. Comrade Litvinoff "telegraphed" Russia's acceptance on a blank which...
...morrow tall, glacial Sir John Simon chastised Colonel Beck before the Assembly with the menace, "It will not be possible for any state to release itself from obligations of this kind by unilateral action." M. Barthou followed with a speech in the firm but supple tradition of the Old Diplomacy. France would no more stand for treaty-breaking than Britain, he warned, but "France as the friend and ally of Poland" was sure that the Warsaw Government would reconsider before setting "an example which other countries might be tempted to follow"; after all, the very existence of Poland depended upon...
...occupation [by Japan] of China's northeastern provinces constitutes the gravest existing danger of another war." After Mr. Quo had declared "Russia is the arch between Europe and Asia, hence China welcomes Russia to membership in the League," he received warm congratulations from the Great Powers and M. Barthou got back to the business of steering the Soviet Union...
Last winter Oldster Barthou had been on the shelf as a Senator for years when the Stavisky crisis made the prestige of his name a needed asset in the present Doumergue Cabinet of National Union. To everyone's surprise the 72-year-old Foreign Minister turned out to be more active than almost any of his predecessors. He was the first French Cabinet Minister ever to visit Poland. To do him honor Dictator Pilsudski last April canceled a pleasure trip to Egypt. Amid tremendous acclaim he was feted by Czechoslovakia at Prague, exchanged literary reminiscences with President Thomas Garrigue...