INTERNATIONAL: On The Verge

¶His Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner was among the first to accept as a matter of course last week that Britain would soon be at war, cabled to King George VI: “I and my subjects are ever prepared to shed our last drop of blood for His Imperial Majesty. . . .”

¶ Egypt expects, as a satellite of Britain, to be immediately attacked from Italian Libya in case Italy and the United Kingdom find themselves at war, so her Minister of War and Marine Hassan Sabry Pasha was in London, busily consulting with the British War Office. Meanwhile, Egypt’s defenses along the frontier of Italian Libya were inspected by popular young King Farouk I on a flying visit to pep up Egyptian troops.

¶ The Salvation Army mobilized for peace-prayer services throughout the world. In London spry, 72-year-old General Evangeline Booth led 500 of her followers to a hall on the bank of the Thames, put them through prayer-drill with martial commands, “Shut your eyes!” “Clasp your hands!” “Get down on your knees!” “Stand!”

¶ To France from Sultan Sidi Mohammed, who has nominal authority over the natives of French Morocco, Spanish Morocco, now in the hands of Spanish Rightists, and Tangier, came the pledge: “No matter what happens, if the worst comes to pass I can assure you that the Sultan of Morocco and all his subjects will align themselves at the side of France.”

¶ King Bao-Dai of Annam, one of the states which make up French Indo-China, assured France that he and his subjects had “profound attachment and indefectible devotion to the great protector nation.”

¶ “Czechoslovakia will shortly open three huge cemeteries,” announced the Prager Presse defiantly this week. “The largest of the three, at Chodov, is big enough to hold 500,000 corpses.” Above this was splashed a headline:” THE MOST MODERN MORGUE IN EUROPE.”

¶ The old British dodge of calming the public by having newspapers mention that John Bull was paying more attention to cricket scores than to the crisis was considered not worth trying in London this week, but in Manhattan the Journal-American made a brave effort with “WAR IN EUROPE WOULD HIT 6-DAY BIKE RACE.”