Rupture
In pin-stripe trousers, modish short jacket and swank black felt hat, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, arrived in Geneva last week to practice further "Eden Diplomacy."
Its major premise thus far: "Mussolini is bluffing."
During the recent weeks of Italian victories in Ethiopia, incessant intimations have come from Rome to Europe's chancellories that if the Geneva Sanctions Committee, scheduled to meet last week, should show a disposition to tighten the Sanctions screw upon Italy, there would be unpleasant surprises. Mr. Eden, however, was expected by Italians to continue to behave in the manner of his famed father, Sir William Eden, the obstinate English country squire satirized by Whistler.
On reaching Geneva Mr. Eden brushed aside anxious efforts by French Foreign Minister Pierre Etienne Flandin to halt the Sanctions screw, but the handsome young Englishman did agree to an exceedingly brief Sanctions breathing pause. Thereupon the League of Nations dispatched in language approximating an ultimatum queries to Premier Mussolini and to Emperor Haile Selassie as to whether they were ready to open peace negotiations "within the framework and spirit of the Covenant" of the League of Nations.
Certain London newsorgans had by this time carried dispatches, never confirmed, that Adolf Hitler had flown down to Italy for a secret conference with Benito Mussolini. Whether this was true or not, every European statesman had known for at least ten days that, if "Eden Diplomacy" persisted, a shattering diversion would be created.
Diversion. Mr. Eden returned to London and M. Flandin to Paris. The ultimatum was on its way. Mr. Eden had set the levers of Geneva to move under British pressure against Italy in case of a refusal. Then two things happened. Il Duce announced at Rome that he was prepared "in principle" to negotiate peace with Ethiopia. In Berlin came the shattering diversion of an open violation by Germany's Dictator of Article 43 of the Treaty of Versailles and Article I of the Locarno Pact. The violation consisted in marching German troops into the treaty-Demilitarized Rhineland.
"Oh, Duce!" Immediately Premier Albert Sarraut of France and Premier Paul van Zeeland of Belgium flashed to all other signatories of the violated treaties and to Geneva urgent demands for drastic action by the Council of the League of Nations. In cases of this gravity the Council acts by unanimity, and in the Council sits Italy, the shrewd Duce having been astute enough all these months not to quit the League.
Heightening this dramatic situation, Premier Mussolini's Fascist legions in Africa received orders to "cease fire!" For the first time in months not a single Italian bomber left the ground that day. Then in Rome the Chamber of Deputies met and Il Duce with folded arms permitted hawk-faced Count Costanzo Ciano, the Speaker, to indicate the essential nature of the peace negotiations upon which Italy is ready to enter "in principle'' by declaring:
"The War continues and will continue! When the war is over the nation will thank you, oh, Duce!" Italy's official spokes man said this meant Italy will continue fighting while peace is negotiated, will stop when it is signed.
"Notwithstanding." The Council of the League was to meet on Friday, March 13. In London the French and the German Ambassadors were told by Mr. Eden that Germany's violations were "most flagrant" and Germany's that he might even use these strong words in the House of Commons. Presently in the House the young Foreign Secretary said there was "no reason" to suppose would be fighting between Germany and France, but that if this occurred "during the period which will be necessary for consideration," then "His Majesty's Government, notwithstanding the German repudiation of the [Locarno] Treaty, would regard themselves as in honor bound to come, in the manner provided by the treaty, to the assistance of the country attacked."
No more significant word pattern could have been imagined. It was susceptible of the interpretation that if France attacked Germany in punishment of Germany's violations, then Britain would aid Germany. If interpreted in the opposite sense, namely that Britain might aid France, this would not be because of Germany's repudiation but, in Mr. Eden's own word, "notwithstanding" Germany's repudiation.
Mr. Eden explicitly added that His Majesty's Government are ready to sit down at Geneva or elsewhere and negotiate on the basis of the new proposals made by Adolf Hitler after tearing up Germany's existing obligations under two treaties. The French people had just heard their Premier say over a nationwide hookup:
"The French Government, for its part, is fully resolved not to negotiate under menace. This fact alone, that despite Germany's solemn engagements her soldiers are now installed on the banks of the Rhine, prevents for the moment any negotiations.
"I declare in the name of the French Government that we intend to see maintained the essential guarantee of French and Belgian security, constituted by Locarno and countersigned by the British and Italian Governments."
In the House of Commons, Mr. Eden, having ended his remarks, did not wait to answer questions, drove immediately to Victoria Station and 15 minutes after he left the House was speeding toward Paris and Geneva.
Hitler's Terms. This implied no very strenuous efforts by sanctioneer Eden to have Germany punished by application of League Sanctions for what he had himself called "most flagrant" violations. The new Eden Diplomacy of this week seemed to be to give Adolf Hitler anything but the dark brown medicine it has given Benito Mussolini. The power and prestige of His Majesty's Government had definitely been thrown behind the proposition that the Great Powers should examine, with a view to acceptance, the new Nazi Terms. If adopted, these would work out thus:
1) The "Demilitarized Rhineland" is militarized by Germany with the assent of the Great Powers, appropriate clauses of the Versailles Treaty and Locarno Pact being scrapped, with some further scrapping to "Germanize" certain rivers which the Treaty of Versailles "internationalized."
2) Germany signs 25-year nonaggression pacts with France and Belgium and a similar pact with Lithuania. This week the Lithuanian Government, which has feared immediate German attack any day, fairly scrambled in an effort to get Adolf Hitler's signature on this pledge at once.
3) The frontier line dividing Germany from France & Belgium is demilitarized anew for an equal depth on both sides. The French dig up out of the ground along the frontier a section of their $300,000,000 concrete and steel forts with heavy gun emplacements, the Belgians similarly abolish their frontier forts, and the Germans merely march out of the Rhineland the troops they last week marched in with such rejoicings.
4) Germany re-enters the League of Nations, which takes up the question of restoring to Germany the colonies she lost by losing the World War.
As the statesmen of Europe hurried toward Geneva this week French battalions poured into the $300,000,000 forts and for the first time they were fully manned. At some points French and German troops were only a pistol shot apart. The price of a Bank of France share fell from 8,700 to 8,200 francs. On orders from Australian League Council President Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the League of Nations' French Secretary General, M. Joseph A. Avenol, telephoned Berlin, inviting Realmleader Hitler to send a German representative to Geneva for the crucial session of the Council.
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