The gentlemen who formed M. Ribot's Cabinet are objecting to being described as "The One-Day Ministry." They were, they assert, in office for some hours more than that.
The attack on M. Ribot's Ministry in the matter of the Three Years' Service was led in the Chamber by three quite undistinguished Socialists; and the contest was described succinctly by an unsympathetic onlooker as "Trois ânes v. Trois ans."
By the way, M. Viviani's Finance Minister is, we see, M. Noulens. Is he, we wonder, any relation of M. Noulens-Voulens?
The Kaiser has commanded that the Colonial War Memorial to be erected in Berlin shall take the form of an elephant. Presumably it is to be of Parian marble in order to signify that some of the German colonies are a bit like a white elephant.
A French squadron of eighteen vessels has lately been visiting Portland. It was perhaps a little unfortunate that Admiral Callaghan's ship should have been The Iron Duke—but no doubt our tactful officers explained to their visitors that the vessel had been so named after a wealthy iron-master who had been ennobled.