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From the stair pillars frown two enormous busts composed of seven kinds of marble and believed to represent unidentified Arabian characters. Another treasure is the largest piece of Dresden pottery in the world. Dazzling curtains from Baghdad, authentic 18th Century French and Turkish furniture, and a display of solid silver plate bought by Sir Samuel's grandfather a century ago adorn a ménage which the Hoares find cozy.
Neatly sorted into files are newspaper stories and photographs of the Foreign Secretary which he constantly collects, aided by friends all over the world who snip and mail anything they see about "Flying Sam." These remind 55-year-old Sir Samuel that he is an expert fancy skater, that he was Charles Augustus Lindbergh's host in London after the Spirit of St. Louis flight, that he won a socialite tennis championship last year at Dinard, and that he painstakingly answered as Secretary of State for India over 15,000 questions asked him by the Joint Select Committee of the House of Lords and the House of Commons which finally produced the India Bill. Though every Indian party now opposes the new Constitution which was so largely of Sir Samuel Hoare's making, he said of himself on becoming Foreign Secretary: "I think that scores of people will bear out my contention that, though many of them disagreed with my line of conduct, and felt that my proposals were unwise or ill-timed. I have ended my period with more personal friends, from Gandhi on the left to many Indian princes on the extreme right, than has any previous Secretary of State for India." A great statesman, a great Englishman, and now a popular hero, Samuel John Gurney Hoare emerged in the brilliant Geneva dawn last week as quite possibly a future Prime Minister.
"Sum Total Forces!" At Rome the Cabinet in which Benito Mussolini holds eight portfolios met in frowning Palazzo Viminale and a communiqué was issued which was in fact the Dictator's answer to Geneva. "The Hoare and Laval speeches," declared Premier Mussolini's communiqué, "could not be different from what they were because of the English and French positions with regard to the League Covenant. For this reason they have been received with the greatest calm by responsible Italian circles and by the masses of the people." (Actually Italians who anxiously snatched up newspapers last week were visibly perturbed by M. Laval's speech, most Italians having expected him to aid Il Duce with something more than weasel words.)
Continuing, the Dictator's communiqué stressed M. Laval's "cordial" reference to the Rome agreement, then harshly announced: "The [Italian] Cabinet examined in what circumstances Italy's continued membership in the League would be rendered impossible. The Cabinet, after having learned that around the Italo-Ethiopian controversy are gathering all the forces of foreign antiFascism, feels it is its duty to reconfirm in the most explicit manner that the Italo-Ethiopian problem does not admit of compromise solution after the huge efforts and sacrifices made by Italy. . . . From a military viewpoint our preparations in East Africa proceed with greater intensity."