Something Silly
On the European diplomatic front of the Ethiopian war last week tension rose again toward the breaking point. Three brawling boasters could scarcely have vaunted themselves more ready to fight at the drop of a Sanction than did Britain, France and Italy in the suave and supple but exceedingly dangerous communiques of their respective governments to the Press.
In Great Britain the most coarse and straight-forward threat of which silky-spoken members of His Majesty's Government appear to be capable was uttered when one of them said, off the record, "If Mussolini should do anything silly we would have to look into it."
In France, after much pressure by British Ambassador Sir George Clerk upon the Quai d'Orsay, Premier Pierre Laval guardedly repeated the ambiguous pledge he gave last autumn in such terms that London papers last week gave their readers to understand that M. Laval had said France will join England in the fight if Mussolini should do anything silly.
In Italy the position was that if Britain should do anything silly, such as have the League of Nations add oil, the lifeblood of Italy's war machine in Ethiopia, to the list of products banned under Sanctions, then Dictator Benito Mussolini might indeed do something silly. As the polished diplomatic game of understatements and euphemisms in three languages went on last week, a distinct possibility grew that, as in 1914, the talented Ambassadors, Foreign Ministers, Premiers, Presidents and Kings of Europe may find to their genuine surprise and dismay that a situation has been created calling for their soldiers, sailors and airmen.
From a distance of 3,000 miles the game in Europe strongly impressed Canadian Premier William Lyon Mackenzie King last week with a desire to prevent Canada from being blamed in any case for starting a new World War. The proposal to add oil to the Sanctions brew was not made by "The White Knight of Geneva," handsome young British League of Nations Minister Captain Anthony Eden, nor by his Government. With the seasoned diplomat's flair for keeping his own fingers out of the broth, Captain Eden went around to the League's International Labor Office and exerted his charm on that semi-Socialist and anti-Fascist quarter. Soon he had steamed up Chairman Dr. Walter Alexander Riddell of the Governing Body of the International Labor Office, dean of Geneva's diplomatic corps, and permanent Canadian representative at the League of Nations. Next, cables informed the world that "Canada"' had proposed adding oil, coal and metals to Sanctions. This became known as the "Canadian Proposal." In the hands of League public relations experts it was made to look to the whole world and to Italy as if the strongest Sanctions move was being demanded from the other side of the Atlantic.
On League papers the phrase "Canadian Proposal" stood firmly printed. Then, on instructions from Canadian Premier King, now vacationing in the U. S. after his successful treaty-making conference with President Roosevelt, the Canadian Government formally disavowed all connection with Dr. Riddell's proposal. By this time Dr. Riddell was hastily packing to do a chore for the Labor Office in distant South America, had nothing to say last week as League printing presses redesignated the "Canadian Proposal" as "Proposal 4A."
On Dec. 12 the League's so-called Committee of Eighteen which makes Sanctions decisions will consider Proposal 4A.
Most feverish and pulse-quickening serious rumor of the week: His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom have been warned that if Proposal 4A is put into effect, Benito Mussolini will say "Yes" to the 125 fanatical young aviators who have asked whether they may strike a suicidal blow for Italy by diving 125 planes each loaded with a bomb into 125 ships of the British Royal Navy which now has some 200 ships in the Mediterranean.
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