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Against Dictator Mussolini the chief British move last week was actually financial. Her monster "Big Five" banks claimed to be acting independently of the Bank of England when they tightened credits to Italy sharply, made the munitions buying Dictator wince at the vast, invisible potency of London financiers. If any sneak up the Blue Nile was started it was a genuine sneak. Comfortable Punch cartooned a musical comedy interlude in which Dame France and John Bull, wagging their fingers at II Duce, sing: We don't want you to fight But, by jingo, if you do, We shall probably issue a joint memorandum suggesting a mild disapproval of you! All this seemed less funny this week as Greeks reported that a fleet of British bombing planes had swept over their islands bound for Africa. From Egyptian sources it appeared that an armed British sneak toward Lake Tana was indeed being prepared. The Admiralty announced that the Mediterranean fleet would "cruise" for the time being in such fashion as to command the mouth of the Suez Canal. Other British war boats strengthened Gibraltar and Red Sea points. Fifty miles off Italy on the British island naval base of Malta orders from London to erect shelters against air bombs were excitedly obeyed. Some 1,000 troops were ordered to sail from England to bring the Malta garrison up to full strength. Even more ominously the aircraft carrier Furious was rushed full steam from Gibraltar to Malta with three squadrons of planes aboard. These drastic British fighting service moves—considering that Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin had resumed his soaking & sipping at Aix as though he had not a care in the world—struck Continental observers as illogical, fantastic and a perilous example of what is called "the genius of the British for muddling through." Scare heads in London papers suggested that, for all anybody knew, tons of Fascist bombs might at any minute blow up Malta. As George V read the papers he grew more & more excited. He, too, was not in London but 470 miles away at the royal Scottish summer retreat, Balmoral. Finally His Majesty could stand it no longer, took the most unusual step of causing it to be publicly made known that he had cabled Mr. Baldwin an expression of the Sovereign's readiness at a moment's notice to rush back to his Capital. At Aix the knitting needles of Mrs. Baldwin clicked confidently. Providence, Lucy Baldwin devoutly believes, guides Stanley Baldwin and the Empire. How nice it would be, and how simple, if when the League meets on Sept. 4, a few score British war boats rocking gently in the Mediterranean should be found to have put Benito Mussolini in a new and better frame of mind. Every time the Egyptian Government gets uppity they are easily calmed by a British naval or military demonstration. Lucy Baldwin has observed, and to her mind there is not a great deal to choose between an Italian and an Egyptian.