Foreign News: Peace Army

If there has been one thing that Adolf Hitler thought he could count on, it has been the refusal of the British Government to send troops across the Channel to enforce order during the Saar plebiscite Jan. 13. Not only has the House of Commons been assured time & again by Foreign Minister Sir John Simon that no troops would be sent, but the entire British Press has been clamoring against the dispatch of a single Tommy overseas. Last week England, the inexplicable, the illogical and the impulsive, proved herself England once again.

Toward Geneva the train of French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval was chuffing. Day before this crass politician had been considerably surprised when his subordinate in Rome, deft and subtle Ambassador de Chambrun, managed to achieve a fairly satisfactory agreement with German Ambassador Ulrich von Hassell as to post-plebiscite procedure in the Saar, if it votes to rejoin Germany (TIME, Dec. 10). Last week M. Laval was due for another surprise.

At 7 p. m. the French Foreign Minister was scheduled to tell the League Council that France was prepared to send troops to police the Saar during the plebiscite. All day long that brightest of the British Foreign Office’s bright young men, Captain Anthony Eden, had had London on the wire. At 5 p. m. he calmly broke astounding news to M. Laval: His Majesty’s Government had reversed their stand, had tossed aside their assurances to the House of Commons and were prepared to send Tommies. Only two other League states were geared to act in the 120 minutes before the Council would be told. Czechoslovakia’s redoubtable Foreign Minister Dr. Eduard Benes (“Europe’s Smartest Little Statesman”), President of the Council, said that on his own responsibility and lacking instructions from his Government he would engage to supply a contingent of Czechoslovak troops. Meanwhile the Italian Representative Baron Pompeo Aloisi got through by telephone to Benito Mussolini. Instantly came the Dictator’s steel trap decision: if Britain was sending Tommies, Italy would send Bersaglieri with black cock feathers in their hats. Scarcely half a dozen statesmen in the League Rabbit Warren knew of all this international telephoning when the Council met. To them what transpired was as unexpected as the third act of a well cooked mystery drama.

M. Laval, who was still expected by nearly everyone present to offer French troops to the League as trustee of the Saar, declared instead: “In order to emphasize beforethe public opinion of Germany and before the public opinion of the world that France has no secret aims, I desire to announce that France will not participate in any international force which it may be found necessary to send into the Saar.” Amid a great buzz of amazement, sleek, correct Captain Eden took the floor, his voice trembling somewhat. In the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, he said, prevention is better than cure, and the best preventive of trouble during the plebiscite would seem to be to have the Saar policed by troops from noncontiguous countries.

“The way to do this,” continued Captain Eden, “would appear to be by means of the introduction into the Saar, on the responsibility of the Council as a whole before the plebiscite took place, of an international force …as a positive contribution to discharge the responsibility we all share as members of the League. . . . His Majesty’s Government are prepared to contribute a suitable proportion of such an international force.”

Amid even greater hubbub and whispering Captain Eden then sat down, puffed furiously on a cigaret. Caught napping for once. Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff lacked authority to offer Bolshevik troops who would certainly do their best to make Communist propaganda in the Saar. Before ComradeLitvinoff could get through by telegraph to Dictator Stalin, who had a great deal on his hands, the British, French and Italians had persuaded the Council that it would be inexpedient to bring in either Soviet or Czechoslovak troops, both mightily hated by Germans. Hastily the Council persuaded Sweden and The Netherlands to send contingents of their super-neutral troops to join the British and Italians.

At all this the Leagophiles with whom Geneva teems were in ecstasies. “For the first time the League is to have an army in Europe to enforce peace!” they jubilated. “The precedent now being set will be fateful for all time to the peace of the world.”

Grudgingly the German Government, when its approval was asked, retorted that. although in its opinion no troops were needed, it would not object. Privately in Geneva bewildered German diplomats kept saying: “It is some sort of English trick.”

In London the whisper ran down Whitehall that Conservative Party Leader Stanley Baldwin had, with bull-like, bumbling, British common sense, suddenly decided that His Majesty’s Government must do the obvious and had carried all before him by brushing aside the nervous scruples of Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald and Foreign Minister Sir John Simon. Once again the intuition of Mr. Baldwin proved sound. Overnight almost the entire London Press did a complete somersault. Broadcast was the happy thought that Britain was again to shoulder her white man’s burden, this time to impose the Pax Britannica upon the Saar. As one London evening paper observed with jocular gusto, “The only essential is that the troops shall be the best and smartest we have and that they shall be accompanied by their bands. A kilted regiment would be most impressive and a segment of pipers would be certain to distract the Saarlander from the asperities of current politics.”

Old George Lansbury, Laborite Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, had a perfect opening to attack his Majesty’s Government as perjured hypocrites, but instead he endorsed their wisdom, obvious apparently to all Great Britons except that Canadian-born Press Tycoon Baron Beaverbrook. Unheeded, his Daily Express roared, “This is what comes of meddling in a quarrel that is not ours! … By sending in British troops we lay ourselves open to the eventual criticism of both France and Germany. . . . We are like the fool who interferes in another family’s dispute.”

Another eminent subject of King George to whom the behavior of Great Britons appeared fantastic last week was the League’s Australian-born Saar Commissioner, Mr. Geoffrey Knox. When he asked last March for what he suddenly got last week, namely a League Army to police the Saar, everyone in Geneva sat on him, none harder than Sir John Simon.