(5 of 5)
"In Quanto Esse." Rome was first to reply. The Italian Government had just taken four steps: 1) announced a 5% war loan so huge that it shook down Rome's stock market several points; 2) obtained from King Vittorio Emanuele III a decree making Benito Mussolini the sole Italian arbiter of Peace or War; 3) set up a board of Italian fighting service commanders to co-ordinate army, air force and fleet move ments; 4) placed 10.000,000 Italians of both sexes on call for a "practice mobilization"—really a nationwide Fascist pep rally—liable to be announced at any hour this week. In Rome it was supposed to be highly significant that Il Papa, previously lukewarm toward Il Duce in the present crisis, gave his permission as Supreme Pontiff last week that the signal for Fascist mobilization shall be the ringing of Catholic church bells.
With this under their belts, Mussolini & Cabinet announced: "The Cabinet, although appreciating the efforts made by the Committee of Five, has decided that the proposals are unacceptable insofar as (in quanta esse) they do not offer a minimum basis sufficient for a conclusive realization which would finally and effectively take into account Italy's vital rights and interests."
When this communique first came through from Rome the phrase in quanta esse was mistakenly translated, "as," and Anglo-Saxon headlines announced MUSSOLINI SAYS "NO." On the contrary, Italy's Geneva Delegation declared, Premier Mussolini could only have inserted "insofar as" (in quanta esse), "to leave the door ajar for negotiation." Next day Il Duce, having thus far done nothing but reject offers, made Italy's first proposals. His League Delegate Baron Aloisi asked, in effect, for a partial League mandate over Ethiopia. The country's armed forces would be largely under Italian advisers to the Emperor, and exclusively mandated to Italy would be a part of Western Ethiopia similar to the area His Majesty tried to grant as a concession to "Standard Oil" (TIME, Sept. 9) but smaller. Since Britain and France each hopes to tap Ethiopia's trade by offering the Empire a corridor to the sea through its colony. Dictator Mussolini was again overindulging his irrepressible sense of humor when he ended by declaring: "Italy, and not Britain or France, should make that sacrifice!"
This jibe sorely vexed the League Committee of Five which meanwhile had received Ethiopia's guarded acceptance of their scheme "as a basis for discussion." Italy's scheme, the Committee hotly reported to the League Council, is "unacceptable and not susceptible of discussion within the framework of the League Covenant," thus deadlocking Geneva. Scheduled were meetings of the British Cabinet and the League Council to discuss some form of punitive action ("sanctions") against Italy if Italy makes "war"—a term the League has never succeeded in defining.
King to King. With most Italians feeling last week that evidently Britons do not understand how little Italy wants in Africa, their Little King sat down in his Quirinal Palace and wrote to King George, asking him to explain things in London— or so the British Reuters Agency reported. George V, having finished up his Scottish grouse shooting, announced that he would return to Buckingham Palace this week several days ahead of schedule. All his life a practical Navy man, His Majesty was far more alive than politicians like Squire Baldwin to the queer fact that big guns have a way of going off by themselves, and that His Majesty's Government had in fact placed the peace of Europe last week at the mercy of an incident.
Even London correspondents called "strange" an abrupt announcement by His Majesty's Government giving the "violence" of anti-British articles in Italian newspapers as their reason for flinging a vast display of naval might into the Mediterranean. Never before has the Power of the Press been thus saluted by British statesmen. Numerous British newsorgans last week were calling Premier Mussolini a maniac and London's Sunday Referee published an article hopefully suggesting that Italians will rise under Crown Prince Umberto and Air Marshal Balbo in a "revolt against the Dictator." Neutrals observed that, if the British "reason" is valid, Adolf Hitler may, with even better reason, use the excuse of press attacks upon Nazi-land to send German bombing planes roaring in "maneuvers" over Manhattan, Paris or London.
Key & Key. Almost the entire British submarine fleet had been thrown into the Mediterranean and such craft, notoriously cranky, are apt to rise by accident in such fashion as to be crushed by a surface ship. Suppose an Italian cruiser thus "ran down" a British submarine?
As sea King George V studied his Admiralty charts he saw an amazing thing. Malta, traditionally Britain's "Key to the Mediterranean." had become last week an inviting naval keyhole. In fear of Italian bombing planes, the big British ships normally based at Malta had withdrawn to Egyptian and Syrian waters, leaving in the keyhole only a British aircraft carrier, its complement of battle planes and a few-light destroyers as the best weapons to be left there.
Simultaneously the Island of Pantelleria achieved fame as Italy's "Key to the Mediterranean." Its inhabitants of nearly 10,000 were placed by Benito Mussolini in a "state of siege" and preparations were rushed full blast to use it as an Italian submarine and bombing plane base. Boasted proud Pantellerians prematurely: "Our island, because it lies in the middle of the narrowest part of the Mediterranean, commands the channel and divides the British forces!"
"Gentlemen's Ships." Perfectly fascinating to naval experts this week became the game of comparing British and Italian war boats, sea demons everyone hoped would not fight. According to London's famed Dr. Oscar Parkes, editor of the standard Jane's Fighting Ships, who wallows authoritatively in potential gore. Italy's Navy—considered ship for ship where the comparison is possible—has distinct advantages over the larger British Navy in speed and modernity.
It would appear, according to Dr. Parkes. that King Vittorio Emanuele's 10,000-ton, 8-inch gun cruisers of the Pola class could outduel King George's London class cruisers of similar tonnage and gun calibre because the Italian ships with a speed of 35 knots are from two to three knots faster than their British peers and much better equipped with anti-aircraft guns. After running the long gamut from submarines to capital ships and pulling a long face the whole way, Dr. Parkes comfortably quoted a remark made to him by a distinguished British admiral: "The Italians build better ships than they can fight."
The British Navy, Dr. Parkes finally explained, is composed of "gentlemen's ships" with every comfort and convenience, whereas the Italians have "ruthlessly curtailed" space and weight until no gentleman would care to fight in them. Oddly enough Dr. Parkes seemed more alarmed by the Fascist "suicide boats" (super-speedboats carrying torpedoes) than by any of Italy's other weapons. "Should the Mediterranean become a scene of naval operations." wrote anxious Oscar Parkes, "I should hazard the guess that these boats and torpedo planes will play a more vital part than the big ships."
Renouncer Renounces. At The Hague, as war clouds gathered, the World Court announced the resignation from its bench this week of ailing Judge Frank Billings ("Nervous Nellie") Kellogg who was U. S. Secretary of State when he and the late great Aristide Briand persuaded virtually every nation in the world to underwrite their Peace Pact renouncing war "as an instrument of national policy."