(2 of 3)
"Let us, on this Anglo-Belgian occasion," cried Mr. Eden, "once again affirm that the independence and integrity of Belgium is a vital consideration for this nation, and that Belgium could count upon our help were she ever the victim of unprovoked aggression!"
At this the Belgian Premier led the Chamber of Commerce in vigorous hand-clapping and cries of "Hear! Hear!" Encouraged, Mr. Eden went on to say that the Britain of 1936 is characterized neither by "softness" nor by "cowardice" and that "the terrible weapons that science has forged can be wielded with no mean courage" by Britons now, as in the past.
Meanwhile press officers of His Majesty's Government told correspondents that Britain last week certainly had no intention of joining the anti-Communist pact of Germany and Japan, under Article II of which non-Communist States are invited to join. This much relieved Socialist Premier Leon Blum of France. It was understood that the position of both London and Paris was substantially covered by French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos when he announced last week: "The accord of Germany and Japan is inspired by a crusading spirit which France, like England and all countries desirous of peace, refuses to accept. France does not wish to add to the all-too-real causes for conflict."
In Tokyo last week the Privy Council of the Son of Heaven were furious at Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita for his handling of the new Treaty. It had been negotiated with great secrecy for some 18 months, and yet it leaked out of the Japanese Foreign Office just a few days before Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff was to have signed a Russo-Japanese fishing treaty highly favorable to Japan (TIME, Nov. 30). Of course Comrade Litvinoff refused to sign this treaty when he heard about the anti-Communist pact, and last week members of the Japanese Privy Council, too angry to be discreet, blabbed that the Japanese Foreign Minister had himself unwittingly blabbed the secret in a conversation with the Soviet Ambassador to Japan, Comrade Konstantin Yurenev who of course flashed it to Litvinoff. The cost of this blunder to the Japanese fishing industry, according to its irate Tokyo tycoons last week, will run into the tens of millions.
Japanese Army circles, close to Premier Koki Hirota and firmly antiCommunist, cracked the whip last week and civilian leaders of both great Japanese political parties expressed warm approval of the Hitler Crusade. Ready were Army zealots to smash any Japanese of consequence who disagreed, but they did not bother last week about certain notes of caution sounded by large Tokyo newspapers with Big Business connections. Of these Nichi Nichi, the boldest, said: "We heartily welcome friendship with Germany, but we feel as though we are running after a fly with a hatchet if the agreement is aimed only against the Communist International. Japan need not stand isolated. Let Japan make friends as fast as she can. But it would be better not to make lukewarm friends at the expense of making red-hot enemies."