Smoking Secrets

When two U. S. Senators were charged with accepting many thousands of dollars "from Moscow," when a sheaf of documents was produced to prove their guilt (TIME, July 22, 1929), it was Berlin Correspondent H. R. Knickerbocker of the New York Evening Post who exposed the European forgers of the "Red Documents," roused German courts to clap them into jail. Last week famed Correspondent Knickerbocker sent from Berlin to Manhattan some despatches so startling that, should fire follow their smoke, he would become a very celebrated correspondent indeed. He said he had learned "from a high official German source" that:

1) The Italian government recently approached the German government with proposals for a military alliance.

2) Getting wind of this, France also approached Germany seeking a pledge of German neutrality in a hypothetical Franco-Italian war.

3) Austria, whose Tyrol might become a second "Belgium" should Italo-French hostilities begin, has been approached by both these governments: by the French with a proposal that French troops be permitted to march through the Tyrol against Italy in the event of war; by the Italians with a proposal that their troops be allowed to pass through another part of Austria, the Moll Valley, in case of war between Italy and Jugoslavia, chief Balkan ally of France.

When a correspondent such as the Post's Knickerbocker, conscientious and responsible, cables that he has received information "from a high official German source" this may be assumed to mean a German Cabinet Minister or Under Secretary of State.

With the friendly relations of so many nations in the balance last week, the German foreign office issued an inevitable denial. But no steps were taken against Correspondent Knickerbocker. Organs friendly to the German government did not flay him. One bitter government critic, Nationalist Deputy Axel Freytagh-Loringhoven, dashed into print with a polemic against German Foreign Minister Julius Curtius, accused him of clumsily letting slip the first opportunity beaten Germany has had to play off two of her former enemies against each other. He declared that Dr. Curtius could have wangled concessions for the Reich from both France and Italy had he been smarter.

At the French Foreign Office, suavest in Europe, Correspondent Knickerbocker's cables were called a "fantasy." Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, either caught red-handed or with a blissfully clear conscience, had just made a most gracious gesture toward Italy. He had announced that work on the new war boats laid down in the French naval program will be suspended for six months. In Italy the Fascist press took its friendliest tone toward France in weeks, not forgetting to hail M. Briand's announcement as a great diplomatic victory for // Duce!

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