"Realists Have Taken Over"

If the wondrous flight of Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow to sign a Pact had jogged the world (TIME, Aug. 28), the Pact's actual wording really shook it. Nub of the Pact was contained in Articles I and II:

The two contracting parties obligate themselves to refrain from every act of force, every aggressive action and every attack against one another, including any single action or that taken in conjunction with other powers.

In case one of the parties to this treaty should become the object of warlike acts by a third power, the other power will in no way support this third power.

Articles III through VII went on to promise constant consultation; friendly exchange of opinions or arbitration in case of disagreement; observance of the Pact for ten years, with five additional years optional.

The world, aghast, looked for a clause, a phrase, a word that could be interpreted as a loophole. Even the German-Italian military alliance, reported Paris-Soir's authoritative Foreign Editor Jules Sauerwein last week, contained a clause in which Germany promised to make no war for three years. By contrast the phrasing of last week's Pact was as inescapable as handcuffs.

Roots. Historical events do not have exact beginnings; no one could fix the moment of conception of the Bolshevik-Nazi deal. That it came naturally from long-standing desires for a German-Russian understanding was too vague, that it was a spur-of-the-moment deal was impossible. But January 12 of this year may have been the turning point. At a New Year's party in his glittering new Chancellery, Adolf Hitler surprised diplomats by having a long, amiable talk with Russian Ambassador Alexei Fedorovich Mere-kalov. Hitler speaks no Russian, the Ambassador little German, but they understood each other better than anyone realized. Thereafter, the Goebbels Press & Radio ceased their gutter-word attacks on Joseph Stalin.

In February, rumors began to have substance : Plans were afoot for a secret parley in Sweden. One-eyed General Jan Syrovy, the "strong man" who became Premier of Czecho-Slovakia during last September's Crisis and who seemed to disappear when Bohemia-Moravia became a protectorate, was rumored carrying mysterious messages from Hitler to Stalin and back, his object being to better the condition of his fellow Czechs under Hitler and to "revenge Munich." Hitler had told the Ambassador that Germany had no designs on the Ukraine, that Stalin should therefore consider a confidential exchange of views; Maxim Litvinoff stayed home from a League of Nations Council meeting to fight against the idea; a large German trade delegation was going to Moscow.

In March, Stalin made a big speech before the Communist Party Congress, lashing out against the democracies. Stalin's Ambassador reportedly let Berlin know of Litvinoff's fall five days before it came, and, day after it came, the Hamburger Fremdenblatt significantly said: "European politics now have emerged once for all from the unfruitful era of unbounded ideological conflict. . . . Realists now have taken over the leadership from idealists like Litvinoff and Eden."

Reports of relevant meetings (occasionally denied) became more & more frequent: Hermann Goring, vacationing in Italy, with Soviet Ambassador to Italy Boris Stein, an avowed plugger for the Pact; Franz von Papen with high officials in Moscow, twice; and, three weeks ago,when all was arranged, Italy's Count Galeazzo Ciano with the prospective signer, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Count Ciano went home in a state of high nervous excitement.

At last the bombshell broke; the Pact was signed. All the world had predicted it, all the world had known it all along; but all the world was nevertheless profoundly shocked and surprised when it came.

Results. If Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin concluded the Pact for its immediate effect--to be so startling that the world would at once accede to dismemberment of Poland--the bitter laugh was on them. Poland behaved as if nothing had happened. Britain, France got madder if possible. Italy went into her oldtime wobbling act. Japan began slapping Germans in Tientsin. Catholic Spain was outraged.

If Hitler and Stalin concluded the Pact for its long-range results, it could evoke almost illimitable visions--two world revolutions merging to divide the world. But the Pact was less than a week old when Stalin surprisingly caused his Congress to delay ratification. By all the omens the Pact had an unhappy life ahead of it.

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