In England the position of frail little Haile Selassie grew so painful last week that His Majesty abruptly departed with his children for Scotland, unable to endure in London what was about to be done in the House of Commons.
Before Haile Selassie left, 400 sorrowful and sympathetic British mothers called upon and curtsied low to the Ethiopian Emperor, many offering him bouquets of blossoms from their gardens. Feminist Sylvia Pankhurst even started a new London newspaper devoted to Haile Selassie's cause, called The New Times & Ethiopian News.
Meanwhile South Africa and Australia, as soon as His Majesty's Governments in these dominions were privately advised of what His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom were about to do last week, promptly disassociated themselves from the impending move. At Capetown forthright General James Barry Munnik Hertzog, South African Premier, boomed: "If other nations like the United Kingdom and France are not prepared to face the possible outcome of continuing League Sanctions against Italy, that does not affect South Africa, which intends to support the League to the last! If the League now collapses, South Africa at least will have the satisfaction that the world knows South Africa was not among those countries which ran away from their duty to the League of Nations."
No Apologies, No Regrets. Every member of the House of Commons knew that the United Kingdom was about to climb down before the Italian Kingdom when handsome young British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden rose to speak. In the gallery sat Italian Ambassador Dino Grandi, whose spade beard turned from black to grey during the weeks and months of British-Italian threats and bickering over Ethiopia. Suavely Captain Eden, with the complete aplomb which he gained at Eton, Oxford and in the trenches, told the House that the pro-Ethiopian, pro-League and anti-Italian policy upon which his whole career and promotion to Foreign Secretary was based, is now no more. Said the Foreign Secretary sonorously: "His Majesty's Government, after mature consideration on advice which I, as Foreign Secretary, thought it my duty to give them, have come to the conclusion that there is no longer any utility in continuing these measures [Sanctions] against Italy."
At once the Commons rang with cries of "Shame!" "Sabotage!" and "Why don't you resign?"
"The fact has got to be faced," said Captain Eden, "that Sanctions did not realize the purpose for which they were imposed. The Italian military campaign succeeded. . . . If this means admitting failure, this is one instance in which it has got to be faced." The Foreign Secretary concluded that so far as he knew there was no stomach among the Great Powers to go to war to "enforce in Ethiopia a peace of which the League could rightly approve," so they simply would not try. Captain Eden said that there was nothing to apologize for and nothing to retract.
"This is your swan song!" cried some Laborites but others jeered: "You're holding your job!"
His face beet-red, Old Etonian Eden snapped: "Honorable members are making cheap gibes not appropriate here!"