Smooth Show

Asked to name the first Emperor that pops to mind, readers of Negro newsorgans are apt to answer not with silky-bearded Emperor George I* of India but with kinky-haired Emperor Haile Selassie I of Abyssinia, the last independent native monarchy in Africa. Last week Negroes were pained and shocked by the callous indifference of most whites to Abyssinia's present life-&-death crisis. Mourned Baltimore's Afro-American, "Even enlightened Americans like Walter Lippmann approve the attempt of Italy to steal Abyssinia's lands, on the theory that it is better to pacify Mussolini in Africa than to have him stirring up trouble in Europe."

Meanwhile the precise text of the covenants secretly arrived at in Rome fortnight ago by Premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval remained secret last week, to the extreme vexation of the League of Nations. That M. Laval, for a political quid pro quo in Europe, had sold Abyssinia down the river to Mussolini few doubted. So far as Africa is concerned, it appeared from official summaries of the secret pacts that Italy had got from France (see map) :

1) Some 3,000 shares in the strategic 486-mile railway connecting the capital of land-locked Abyssinia with the sea in French Somaliland. Only over this railway is it practicable for Haile Selassie (which means Power of Trinity) to import, from the outside world, munitions with which to defend his empire.

2) Some 45,000 square miles of French Sahara (exactly the size of the State of Pennsylvania) to round out the 40,000 square miles quietly obtained from Britain last year by Benito Mussolini.

3) A minute but highly strategic triangle of French territory commanding the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, thus giving Italy a potential war base in this bottleneck between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

4) Virtual carte blanche from France, with Britain's implied approval, to go as far as Il Duce likes in encroaching upon Abyssinia from Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

In Geneva agitated agents of Dictator Mussolini hastily withdrew from circulation last week an Italian map on which it appeared that Power of Trinity I was correct when he protested to the League that the towns in which Italian and Abyssinian troops recently clashed were on Abyssinian soil (TIME, Dec. 24 et seq.) Mussolini now contends that the "Ualual Incident," a three-day pitched battle in which 30 Italians and 110 Abyssinians died, occurred on Italian soil, the frontier line never having been exactly drawn. With the telltale map whisked out of the way, the League Council sat down to hear from Italian Delegate Baron Pompeo Aloisi more about Abyssinian "aggression.'' There was, for example, the preliminary incident at Gondar, when Abyssinians shot an Italian consulate guard, after which II Duce magnanimously exacted nothing more than a 1,000 lire ($85) indemnity. In Rome last week the modern Caesar was acclaimed, as every leader is who brings home really big bacon.

I to III. Scratching his kinky poll in Addis Ababa (pronounced A-dis-A-wa-wa, which means New Flower), the hard pressed Emperor of Abyssinia racked his nimble brain. Amid terrific trumpet blasts, sizzling lamb on skewers was brought to Haile Selassie by retainers who tremble at the nod of His Majesty, the King of Kings, Conquering Lion of Judah, the Elect of God and, by his own account, a lineal descendant of the Queen of Sheba. But last week these glories had gone sour. The Conquering Lion of Judah was trapped by the diplomacy of Europe.

Only a few months ago Italy's African colonies were meticulously visited by conscientious Victor Emanuel III, ''King by the Grace of God and the Will of the Nation," according to Italy's Constitution. In 1924 the Little King was host to the Little Emperor in Rome. Monarchs ought to stick together. Perhaps the King of all the Italians could make some impression on their Dictator. In desperation Power of Trinity I dashed off an appeal which last week reached Victor Emanuel III, via Abyssinia's legation in Rome.

Abyssinian Charge d'Affaires Negradas Yassou (which means Jesus) had just emerged beaming from an audience with Benito Mussolini. ''My audience was most cordial!" boasted the flattered Abyssinian. ''Honorable Excellency Mussolini assured me that he wants to maintain peaceful relations with Abyssinia and that Italy has not the slightest idea of aggresion." Next day the happy little diplomat went around to Quirinal Palace. There Italy's businesslike King accepted Emperor Power of Trinity's missive with the wise air of a Wall Street banker who sits hedged as adroitly as possible amid the New Deal. Afterward a Palace spokesman announced, "The King told the Emperor's emissary that Italy wants peace with her African neighbor."

That was all Power of Trinity asked, and he perhaps felt happier when Victor Emanuel's answer was received in Addis Ababa. Once again Romans noted the aptitude of their King and Dictator for putting on a smooth show. Smoothly next day sources close to Mussolini intimated that Italy's encroachments upon Abyssinia will be "paternal," managed with an infinitely finer Italian hand than the brash Japanese bashing in Manchukuo. Paradoxically it is Japan that Il Duce seeks to bash first in Abyssinia, once a rich market for Italian goods. In last few years Japanese get-rich-quickers have fairly scrambled into Power of Trinity's realm, with the result that the cotton business is now almost entirely in their hands. A chocolate prince of the blood imperial, fascinated by photographs of ten exalted maidens sent him last year by a Japanese lawyer, picked the taffy-colored daughter of Viscount Kuroda and prepared to marry her, sight unseen. With a firm, quick hand Benito Mussolini intervened through the Abyssinian Legation in Rome, managed to squelch that marriage.

Should all else fail Power of Trinity, there is always his resourceful consort and coruler, Empress Waizeru Menen. Some years ago when Italy's sporting Duke of the Abruzzi visited Abyssinia, leaving behind him a gift war tank, he little realized what the present Empress would do with it. Her husband had been imprisoned in Abyssinia's Royal Palace by the then Empress Zauditu. Commandeering the tank, faithful Waizeru Menen sent it crashing through the Palace gates, rescued her husband. A woman of the world, Her Majesty journeyed with maximum pomp to Jerusalem two years ago (TIME, Oct. 9). Three hundred pounds of majesty beneath her State umbrella, symbol of Abyssinian sovereignty, she lent glamour to the consecration beside the River Jordan of a new Coptic Church and Convent-- Abyssinians being Coptic Christians. "The Empress is not interested in public affairs," fibbed Her Majesty's suave Grand Chamberlain. "She is interested only in her home and children." Especially confidential letters from His Majesty are typewritten by Her Majesty and together they edit an Abyssinian newspaper, once commended by the London Times for a "powerful article against gay night life."

*Although England's fifth George, he is India's first.

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