BRIAND, ARISTIDE

(1862), Fr. statesman; four times prime minister; in 1899 was an avowed Syndicalist; advocating general strike; entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1902; brought forward proposals for separation of Church and State (became law 1905); as minister of public worship in Clemenceau’s cabinet (1906-7) administered the new law with firmne and tact; as prime minister during Great War is credited with bringing Rumania into the struggle; unrivaled as a parliamentary orator. He was minister of Foreign Affairs from January 1916 to March 1917, and again from January 1921 to January 1922. He was a delegate to the Conference on the Limitation of Armaments at Washington in 1921, and strangely defended the French position in several addre es. See CONFERENCE IN THH LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS. BRIAREUS, A®geon, god of Gk. mythology; with 300 arms and 50 heads.