"Spes Ultima Deus!"

In Rome no maxim is more rigid than the Fascist saw: "One cannot ask Il Duce the same thing twice."

Not convinced that when Benito Mussolini has answered he has answered, British Minister for League of Nations Affairs Captain Anthony Eden, and French Premier Pierre Laval spent an exasperating week in Paris trying to find out officially from Italian League Delegate Baron Pompeo Aloisi what Italy really wants of Ethiopia.

Since British statesmen are well known to doubt almost everything they read in the papers,* Captain Eden's curiosity would have been natural, had he not recently popped the question to Il Duce in Rome and been officially answered (TIME, July 1 & 8). Previously in Rome, Premier Laval had gone even farther, making with Premier Mussolini a pact in which France gave Italy a "free hand" against Ethiopia (TIME, Jan. 14 & 21) in return for Italian support at the subsequent Stresa Conference on German rearmament. Thus last week Mr. Eden and Premier Laval knew they were asking Baron Aloisi to ask Premier Mussolini a repeat-question which could only infuriate the Dictator.

"Communication with Il Capo del Governo is naturally difficult. He is very busy," the Fascist Baron told the French Premier apologetically. "Not only are his two sons at this moment en route to Africa, but even his son-in-law is now leaving for the front."

"Front?" the French Premier cried. "But, if you are already making war, why have you come here to negotiate?"

"My use of the word 'front'," weaseled Baron Aloisi, "was a mistake."

Doggedly Eden & Laval kept on asking if Mussolini would not retreat from his position of demanding Ethiopia for Italy, agree to formation of a joint Italo-Anglo-Franco Exploitation Company "for opening up Ethiopia," and promise to keep out of that part of Ethiopia in which Britain has keenest interest, Lake Tana which feeds the Blue Nile. This proposition they made conditional on the unlikely fluke that it would be accepted by both the Emperor of Ethiopia and the League of Nations. It must also be accompanied, stipulated Captain Eden and Premier Laval, by a declaration that "the independence of Ethiopia remains unimpaired."

At last, Baron Aloisi was persuaded to telephone this to Premier Mussolini who had spent most of the week at the wheel of his racing car dashing from one troop ship on the point of sailing to the next. "Crush all before you!" he had been telling battalion after battalion of cheering troops. "The hour of destiny for Italy has struck!"

Aloisi was put on the wire. Il Duce heard him out. "Laval clearly agreed to Italian predominance in Ethiopia," the Dictator finally said. "If Laval now says that I have gone too far, I am ready and willing to meet Laval again and talk it over once more."

From this invitation Premier Laval recoiled, and Captain Eden mounted his dignity when informed that the Dictator had further said: "Eden knew perfectly well before he went to Paris that Italy could not accept anything so unsubstantial as is now proposed. It is evident that he left London with the deliberate intention of trying to put upon Italy blame for the breakdown of the Conference."

Seasoned Paris correspondents cabled that they had never seen a British Delegation so disconcerted as by Il Duce's words. They called "prim" the air with which Captain Eden and his aides went about saying: "We have nothing on our conscience" and prepared at once to leave for London, the Conference having obviously been smashed. Before leaving, Minister Eden pleased Britons by having a heart-to-heart with the U. S. Embassy's Charge d'Affaires, swank J. Theodore Marriner. stirred hopes that President Roosevelt might "do something."

In London the odds on an Italo-Ethiopian war tightened until to get $1 worth of insurance against it, one had to pay Lloyds 99-c-. Downing Street announced that an "emergency meeting" of the British Cabinet would be called "within ten days." When correspondents asked Italy's Paris Spokesman for the nth time "What are the possibilities for a peaceful settlement now?" he answered in classical Latin "spes ultima deus--The Last Hope Is God!"

*Swiss telephone operators were chuckling last week at a conversation which occurred when Minister Eden recently answered his phone in a Geneva hotel: "Is this Mr. Anthony Eden?" "Yes. Who is it speaking?" "The editor of the Sunday Dispatch." "No! This is not Mr. Eden."

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