Diplomacy Widow

Lean, birdlike Mrs. Anthony Eden made one of her extremely rare public appearances last week. To the members of the Conservative Women's Society, the wife of Britain's Foreign Minister declared: "I find myself with a husband who is working 16 hours a day. A lull in all the hurly-burly of international politics would be very welcome to me for it has made a diplomacy widow of me."

Forced to forego her own honeymoon twelve years ago because of her husband's first political campaign, Mrs. Eden was a diplomacy widow again last week at her sister's wedding to Dr. Bathhurst Norman in Yorkshire. Captain Eden had spent a hectic week-end in Britain but was forced to entrain for Geneva on the very morning of the wedding. It was increasingly evident to newshawks, however, that if diplomacy had made a widow out of Mrs. Eden. Benito Mussolini had made a monkey out of her husband.

Whooping it up in Geneva fortnight ago for stiffer sanctions against Italy or an immediate armistice, Foreign Minister Eden returned to London over the week-end for a few cool words of advice from Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

The British people, said the Premier, simply will not stand for a war with Italy or anyone else at the present time. Britain's foreign policy for seven months has been based on the fond belief that Benito Mussolini was bluffing. Seven months of diplomatic failures had brought Stanley Baldwin to the realization that Benito Mussolini was not bluffing. He sympathized wholeheartedly with young Mr. Eden's idealistic point of view. Every wise Briton was aware that Italian conquest of Ethiopia, now at hand, might easily mean the end of British domination in the Mediterranean and the beginning of a serious rebellion in Egypt. But for the time being there was nothing to do about it.

In a chastened mood Anthony Eden went back to Geneva, leaving his little son Nicholas to act as page at his sister-in-law's wedding. At the same time Ethiopia's Minister to London, Dr. Azaj Wargnek Martin, suddenly found it impossible to obtain further British credits to buy munitions.

Just before leaving Geneva for London Foreign Minister Eden had swallowed a bitter pill. The basis of his case against Italy was the use of poison gas against unprotected villages. Most of this evidence was in the hands of the International Red Cross. Somebody, French or Italian, had evidently reached the ear of Swiss Max Huber, president of the International Red Cross, which suddenly refused to present its evidence to the League of Nations' Committee of Thirteen. In a pouring rain Anthony Eden went for a long walk in Geneva's Mon Repos Park, stood for a long while looking at the grey waters of the lake.

Aloisi's Triumph, If it was a bad week for Anthony Eden, it was a glorious week for Il Duce's faithful Geneva delegate, Baron Pompeo Aloisi. The ears of this onetime naval officer have burned for months with bitter messages from his boss over his failure to halt the application of League sanctions. The belated success of Italy's armies in Africa did the Baron no good, but last week he was in a position to crow, and he took full advantage of it.

Nicely timed to take the sting from Britain's charges about the use of poison gas, the Italian Government presented two decrees issued from the headquarters of Marshal Badoglio. The first abolished slavery in all occupied territory. The second forbade the employment of Ethiopian children under 14 years of age in heavy manual labor.

Then to scholarly Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish chairman of the Committee of Thirteen, Baron Aloisi presented Italy's demands for peace.

1) Italy spurns the League of Nations as an intermediary. Ethiopia must first beg for peace through the headquarters of Marshal Badoglio in Africa.

2) Italy will then open a peace conference, but not within the tainted confines of Geneva. Instead it will conduct negotiations at Ouchy, the lakeside section of Lausanne.

3) As a favor, Italy will keep the League informed of the progress of peace negotiations, but the League can have no voice in them.

4) If Italy consents to an armistice on these terms, the League must guarantee the safety of Italian troops against Ethiopian attacks. Chairman de Madariaga withdrew looking as if he had swallowed a mouthful of alum.

Helpful Joseph. The only bright spot in Anthony Eden's bitter week was the presence of a new French delegate. Hulking, outspoken Foreign Minister Flandin had to stay in France to do a little belated campaigning for the coming parliamentary elections. To take his place, he sent a predecessor in France's Foreign Office, silver-thatched, quick-witted Joseph Paul-Boncour. One of the smartest trial lawyers in France, he is much more sympathetic personally to Anthony Eden than Foreign Minister Flandin is. Puffing nervously at a cigaret, talking with pale fluttery fingers, M. Paul-Boncour explained France's position in an entirely new light:

Odds were increasing that the French elections would swing to the Left, which would probably mean that he, Joseph Paul-Boncour, would go back as French Foreign Minister. He personally was entirely in favor of an oil ban on Italy, or anything else that his good friend Eden would suggest, but his constituents were not.

"What would be the good, mon ami," he insisted, "in deciding on an oil sanction now, only to have it undone in three weeks by handing the French elections to the Rightists?"

Britain's Eden was so struck with the happy idea behind all this that he rushed to the Press with a few kind words expressing his profound gratitude at the "helpfulness of M. Paul-Boncour."

The bargain was struck. France agreed not to demand the lifting of existing sanctions against Italy. Britain agreed not to press for an oil embargo--until after the French elections. The League of Nations promptly dropped the entire business with its most craven admission to date:

"The Committee is only able to put on record the fact that the mission of information confided to its president must be considered as fulfilled. It notes equally that if the appeal which was addressed on March 3 to the Italian and Ethiopian Governments has received answers giving rise to hopes of prompt cessation of hostilities, these hopes must for the moment be abandoned."

Prop For Eden. At this point the British Government realized that something must be done to restore the prestige of Anthony Eden and take a little cockiness out of Baron Aloisi. Slow-moving Stanley Baldwin hoisted himself on a lecture platform in Worcester to defend Britain's temporizing on sanctions, and his Foreign Secretary.

"Sanctions are slow in action," rumbled the Prime Minister, "and lose a great deal of their force unless they can be supported by the ultimate sanction which is a blockade of force. Collective security will never work unless all the nations who take part in it are prepared simultaneously to threaten with military sanctions. . . . That means that the nations taking part in that collective security must be ready.

"In the Italian Press Mr. Eden is being attacked with a lack of restraint which we must regret for what is regarded as an anti-Italian policy. I wish to make it clear beyond all doubt that the policy which the Foreign Secretary is conducting in this matter is not his own personal policy but the considered policy of the whole Government. Its motive is not to defeat or humiliate Italy but to support the Covenant of the League."

Figures. The League of Nations Secretariat produced a mimeographed sheaf of figures last week to show that even the weaseling sanctions now in force had been a body blow to Italy. All figures were based on U. S. gold dollars. Italian imports of merchandise that totaled $14,650,000 in February 1935 dropped to $8,239,000 for February 1936. Exports were cut almost 50%. The country most effective in applying sanctions was Yugoslavia, which bought only $300 worth of Italian goods in February. The U. S. profited most from trading with outlawed Italy, her exports from November 1935 through February 1936 increasing $2,148,000 over the same period the year before.

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