"How Stupid!"

Fortnight ago the Berlin Nazi-controlled newsorgan Lokalanzeiger called former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, now Lord Baldwin, a "guttersnipe." Nazis were vexed because Lord Baldwin, in appealing for contributions to a help-the-refugees fund, had condemned Germany's persecutions of Jews.

Many other British statesmen have been called just as bad or worse in the German press (notably Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper), but last week Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Lord Baldwin's successor, decided to defend his old Cabinet colleague. Invited to deliver the main speech at the 50th anniversary dinner of London's Foreign Press Association, which includes in its membership German as well as U. S., French, Italian, Polish, Latin American correspondents, Mr. Chamberlain, in preparing his speech, inserted amidst paragraphs of amiable generalities one moderate sentence of criticism:

"I must deplore the recent attitude of the German press, which in one case has not scrupled to pour its vituperation against our most respected statesman, himself only recently Prime Minister of this country, and in few cases has shown much desire to understand our point of view."

Advance copies of Mr. Chamberlain's speech, marked "confidential," were given to correspondents (including the German) at No. 10 Downing Street at 3 p.m., five hours before the dinner at distinguished Grosvenor House. At 6 p.m. German Ambassador Herbert von Dirksen, who was to occupy a seat at the speakers' table, got hold of a copy of the speech, telephoned Berlin. At 7 p.m. Ambassador von Dirksen notified 25 obedient Nazi newsmen not to attend, and telephoned his "regrets" to the association. The Ambassador "felt an embarrassing situation might arise if in the course of the evening mention were made of subjects entailing criticism of German affairs."

By the time the guests--among them British Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon, the Ambassadors of Italy, France, Russia, Brazil--had begun to arrive, 50 chairs reserved for the missing Germans had been removed and table seatings rearranged. Informed of the boycott, Prime Minister Chamberlain was heard to exclaim: "How stupid!" But Mr. Chamberlain made no changes in his speech, got a big hand when he came to the "offending" sentence.

Appeaser. To most polite Britons the German boycott was a shocking lapse of manners. To the London press the "banquet incident" loomed bigger than any far-off territorial dispute. But Mr. Chamberlain's own words at the banquet proved that no question of taste would affect the Prime Minister's appease-the-dictators policy. Avoiding the use of the word "appeasement," a term no longer very popular in England, Mr. Chamberlain said he would continue to make a "prolonged and determined effort to eradicate possible causes of war and to try out methods of personal contact and discussion." Dictatorships do not last forever, the Prime Minister hinted, and "attempts at domination are never long successful."

To the Prime Minister the appeasement policy has already been a big success. He cited five international agreements as evidence: 1) the Anglo-German "no-more-war" declaration at Munich; 2) the Anglo-Italian agreement pledging status quo in the Mediterranean; 3) the French-German treaty freezing the two countries' frontier; 4) the Anglo-Eire agreement restoring natural trade relations and evacuating British-manned forts in Eire; 5) the Anglo-American trade treaty.*

This week the House of Commons failed to concur as heartily as Mr. Chamberlain expected. Laborites mustered 143 votes (to 340) for their motion of "misconfidence" in the Chamberlain policy.

Winner & Loser. Speaking of his and Lord Halifax's forthcoming visit to Dictator Mussolini, Mr. Chamberlain warned correspondents not to speculate on "who is the winner and who is the loser in these talks." But Frenchmen were already fearful that when Mr. Chamberlain starts "appeasing" Italy, France will be the loser.

Before the boycotted dinner the Prime Minister had stated in the House of Commons that Britain had "no specific obligation" to help France in case Italy seized Tunisia. This too-literal statement alarmed the French and delighted Italians. Mr.

Chamberlain tried to undo the impression at the dinner with another sentence: "Our relations with France are so close as to pass far beyond mere legal obligations, since they are founded on identity of interest." Pressed the next day in the House of Commons for a clearer statement, Mr.

Chamberlain said: "In the view of His Majesty's Government the undertaking to respect the status quo in the Mediterranean, as embodied in the Anglo-Italian agreement, certainly applies to Tunis."

Andre Geraud ("Pertinax"), ace French political commentator, predicted in L'Apostrophe that Mr. Chamberlain in Rome would try to make a deal whereby France would hand to Italy the French-owned Abyssinian Railroad and a big slice of French Somaliland. In return, Italy would probably be asked to guarantee thereafter French sovereignty of Tunisia. But later, in a foreign policy debate in the Chamber of Deputies, Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet threw some cold water on any such idea: "Italy must know that France will never cede an inch of any part of her territory anywhere to Italy."

* Mr. Chamberlain's hosts, the correspondents, raised a skeptical eyebrow over this argument. Chief result of the Anglo-German declaration has been an anti-British campaign of insults in the Nazi press. On the heels of the Anglo-Italian Treaty Italy fostered a campaign demanding the French protectorate of Tunisia, which would very much disturb the Mediterranean's status quo. The French-German treaty, signed only a fortnight ago, is not yet old enough to have brought noticeable results. The Anglo-Eire and Anglo-American trade treaties had nothing to do with appeasing dictators.

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