Secret

Casual, unobtrusive, the Marquis Panlucci Decaboli, private secretary to Premier Mussolini, boarded a wagon-lit at Rome two months ago, and was whisked toward Spain --ostensibly to visit his father-in-law, the Italian Ambassador at Madrid. The Marquis, a diplomat of talent, force, parts contrived by the aid of the Spanish news censor to escape all but purely social notice in the press of Madrid. Many a woolgathering foreign spy failed even to note the astute Marquis's occasional late suppers with Foreign Minister Yanguas of Spain, after which the Marquis occasionally remained until near dawn. Last week an explanation of these curious developments was at last forthcoming: the Spanish and Italian Foreign Offices announced briefly that a secret treaty of arbitration between Spain and Italy had been negotiated and signed at Madrid.

What are the terms of this avowedly secret treaty? The signatory powers contented themselves with a cryptic announcement: "The Treaty will be made public when it is registered with the League of Nations," an event which may perhaps be delayed indefinitely.

From "inspired statements" in the Hispano-Italian press, it became clear last week however, that the instrument consists of some 15 articles, dealing with the relations of Italy and Spain, firstly from a political and secondarily from a juridical aspect:

1) Neutrality on the part of one signatory power is provided in the event of the other signatory being attacked without provocation by a third power.

2) A commission of five members (one Spaniard, one Italian, and three Neutrals acceptable to them) will be constituted to arbitrate questions arising between the signatories.

Significance. The nice interbalance of the Northern Mediterranean powers and their incessant rivalries for possession of Southern Mediterranean lands renders the present treaty of paramount importance. France and Spain have just victoriously concluded a war which has given them control of Morocco (TIME, April 19) and when a partition of this territory is made into "colonies," "protectorates," "mandates" or "spheres of influence," Italy will assumedly claim a share of this exalted swag as the price of her acquiescence in the Franco-Spanish mutual apportionment. Thus, in respect to Morocco alone, the new treaty looms ominously for France. Dictator-Premier Primo de Rivera of Spain went so far as to intimate to correspondents last week that Spain will demand for herself the now Franco-Anglo-Spanish-neutralized Zone of Tangier, Morocco.

Speculating further afield last week, a handful of alarmists prophesied that the treaty will mark the inception of a concerted Hispano-Italian program of "peaceful penetration" into South America through emigrant organizations and propaganda which may eventually threaten the Monroe Doctrine.

The ill-omened effects of secret treaty-making were demonstrated again last week by a flood of rumors containing dire hints of secret "war clauses." Though everyone knows that secrecy between nations breeds misunderstandings and wars, the Fascist Tribuna declared in an exultant editorial: "Following the good old method of secret diplomacy, a solid contribution to post-war European pacification has been achieved."