"I Shall not admit . . . War"

INTERNATIONAL

"I Shall not admit . . . War"

In the stuffy League Assembly, hothouse of Europe's statesmen in more senses than one, sprouted suddenly last week a solemn Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Once an iron moulder, later a Nonconformist Wesleyan lay preacher, today Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, plodding "Uncle Arthur" Henderson has played until last week something less than second fiddle to Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald in shaping the Empire's foreign policy. Dramatic therefore was his sprout. The League clock had just struck drowsy 4 p. m. Less than half the delegates were in their seats. The big speech of the day had already been made --so it was thought--by Europe's greatest orator, foxy, cello-throated Aristide Briand, Foreign Minister of France.

As he mounted the rostrum "Uncle Arthur" looked strangely thin. No wonder. He had just lost a "stone" (14 lb.). Under doctors' orders he and Mrs. Henderson spent most of August gulping down the slimming waters of a Welsh spa (Llandrindod Wells), from which they hastened via London to Geneva. In pulpit tones, measured, slow and once or twice ringingly fervent, Mr. Henderson made last week the speech of his life, successfully courted fame by demanding that the League act to achieve Disarmament, cease piddling about "Security," the Frenchified nebulosity upon which M. Briand is trying to erect his famed "United States of Europe" (TIME, Sept. 16, 1929 et seq.)

Pacemaker Henderson. "We who are gathered here are custodians of the Peace of the World," preached Uncle Arthur solemnly. "Need I remind this great assembly that two years have gone by since we resolved that, due to the Locarno agreements, it had become possible to hold a Disarmament Conference. We have not as yet assembled that great convention. Our pace is slow and the peoples of the world are growing impatient, doubtful of our good faith."

Every September such pleas for Disarmament have been heard in Geneva from the minor nations, from Sweden, Norway, Holland, Bulgaria. But not in many a year has a Great Power galvanized the League Assembly with such demands as Jack-in-the-Pulpit proceeded to spout.

"Security is Impossible!" Attacking directly M. Briand's "United States of Europe," a scheme predicated on a round-robin guarantee of Security, Mr. Henderson cried:

"Security is impossible of achievement if competitive military preparations continue as they are going on today! Disarmament and security are interlocked. The whole system of the [League] Covenant rests upon that. Therefore, in accepting new instruments [i.e. Briand's scheme] which are designed to strengthen the machinery of the Covenant on the side of security, we shall insert a condition that our acceptance of such measures shall only become effective when, on the other side, disarmament has ceased to be a mere phrase and has become a reality.'

Pausing for effect, Mr. Henderson drew breath, then preached his final thunderbolt. ''This principle," he cried, "is one upon which, I am certain, every party in my country will agree. It is a principle, therefore, on which the future policy of Great Britain will certainly be founded! After all, Sir [gesturing at Rumanian President of the Assembly Nicholas Titulescu], after all, Sir, there is none of us who in his heart does not know that, of all security measures, Disarmament is in itself the most important. . . . The time for political action has now arrived! We hope that the world conference on Disarmament may be summoned for next year."

Bob-up Briand. Like one of those teetering round-bottomed toys called a "Bob-up" (feminine "Susy Dam," neuter "Be-ba-bo"), French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand bobbed up next morning, professing to see no rebuke to France in "Uncle Arthur's" speech. Of course France favors Disarmament, he smoothly observed, pointed to a passage in his own speech preceding Mr. Henderson's. He had said that Security must precede Disarmament, added that France has "notably reduced" her armaments on the basis of the partial security, she has already achieved, concluded loudly:

"While I am where I am there will be no war! I shall not admit that war shall be again let loose upon humanity."

In League circles the Henderson "Sermon on Disarmament" was rated of paramount importance, considered the deadliest shaft yet loosed at the prospective "United States of Europe," held to mark the emergence of "Uncle Arthur" as a figure of world significance--much as his colleague, tart-tongued Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden became an international personage last year in a single day at The Hague (TIME, Sept. 9, 1929 et ante).

Tariff Warning. With a mien more solemn than even "Uncle Arthur's?," famed William Graham, President of the British Board of Trade and as such a member of the MacDonald cabinet, addressed the assembly pessimistically last week on "the general world depression and fall of commodity prices."

Weighing his words anxiously, Mr. Graham stressed the "extreme reluctance" with which British labor would embark on a high tariff policy, left his hearers with the impression that Scot MacDonald, lifelong free-trader that he is, will soon "reluctantly" embark (see p. 21).

Disappearing Dino. Major mystery of last week's League session: Where did Dino Grandi, dynamic Foreign Minister of Italy, disappear to--and why?

Suddenly, on the day before the Briand-Henderson speeches, Signer Grandi walked out of his Geneva hotel, slipped into his limousine, sped off in the general direction of Rome without notifying any of his fellow diplomats or even the League Secretariat.

Two days later no Rome correspondent could find vanishing Dino. His butler said he had not been home. At his office, the Foreign Ministry, he was cryptically said to be "busy with affairs of state."

These affairs were later whispered to be a "series of secret offers," reputedly exchanged between M. Briand and Signore Grandi at Geneva in an effort to smooth over the "Mediterranean relations" of Italy and France--i.e. Italy's claim to naval parity with France which nearly wrecked the London Conference (TIME. Jan. 27 to April 28), and the French demand that Italian emigrants to Tunis become French citizens. If such vital matters were indeed up for secret discussion before the League convened last week, Signore Grandi was certainly justified in quitting the windy Assembly discussions to report to Dictator Mussolini.

Dantes on Yankees. Rashest act of the League week was that of Haiti's spitfire delegate, M. Dantes Bellegarde. He began with a tirade against President Herbert Hoover and "Yankee Imperialism" in general. He ended by declaring that what he had voiced was no personal opinion but the considered attitude of the Haitian Government.

Keynote of his speech:

"The fear of the United States reigns in Latin America. . . . We behold the shadow of a dreadnought behind each Yankee dollar [invested in Latin America]. . . . American military occupation in Haiti must end. . . ."

Saar & Palestine. Amid so many cries for action last week what did the League actually do? Two simple things of first importance:

1) Meeting to discuss the vexed Saar Territory, the League Council ordered by unanimous vote that the 300 Allied troops still stationed there be withdrawn within three months. Theory: this shrewd French "concession" on the eve of the Reich elections (see p. 22) was expected to swing many a vote to the People's Party of "successful" Dr. Curtius, his party being the most friendly in Germany to France.

2) The Council adopted the League Mandates Commission report censuring Great Britain for failure to take more effective steps to check the Palestine massacres of last year (TIME, Aug. 26, 1929 et seq.). This was the first instance in which a Great Power has ever submitted to direct censure from an organ of the League.

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