Rene Viviani, vice-president of the Council of Ministers of France, and, with Marshal Joffre, head of the French Commission to this country, paid a hasty visit to the University yesterday afternoon. He arrived in Cambridge at 4 o'clock and went immediately to the residence of President Lowell, where he paid his compliments to the president and expressed his regret at not having been able to be present at the exercises on Saturday, and his consequent inability to receive the degree of doctor of laws which had been voted him. Because M. Viviani was not here personally, the vote conferring the degree on him automatically became void.

M. Viviani was escorted by President Lowell to the Widener Library, where a reception committee consisting of Major Henry Lee Higginson '55, W. C. Lane '81, the librarian; Professor A. C. Coolidge '87, Professor W. E. Hocking '01, and E. J. Wendell, member of the Board of Overseers, were waiting to greet him. He was taken first into the Memorial Room, where the rare books and medals of Harry Elkins Widener '07 are kept; then to the reading room, and finally into the stacks. He expressed his admiration at the size and beauty of the structure. After this, M. Viviani left immediately for Boston, the whole visit having occupied scarcely half an hour.

Very few students, except those in the library had an opportunity to see M. Viviani because of his unherelded visit.