(6 of 7)
During the Ethiopian crisis, while Sir Samuel Hoare was Foreign Secretary, he was one statesman who knew perhaps the major secret of which Italian success depended, if it was a secret. Anyone could then read, in almost any newspaper, stories about the quantities of arms being smuggled to Ethiopia's Emperor across British Somaliland; smuggled by venal Frenchmen up their railway; even smuggled in from the Sudan. Close friends of Sir Samuel say secret agents kept him informed that Ethiopia's Emperor was in fact not receiving arms in anything like the quantity generally assumed and even feared by Italy. It was chiefly upon this that smart Sam Hoare based a shrewd foreknowledge that Benito Mussolini was extremely likely to conquer all Ethiopia, had better be brought to peaceful terms before he could do so. Sir Samuel's realistic mind also made it easy for his ice-blue eyes to see that poison gas would be used in the final and decisive actions, a vision denied many muddling British statesmen who today wonder why on earth they did not see with Sam. "My Husband's Work." Having only just taken office, the new First Lord must cope with Oswald Pirow, keep a naval eye on Adolf Hitler, rattle British arms in the Mediterranean so that Italians do not get too chesty, prepare the British Admiralty's brief for forthcoming naval negotiations with the United States, maintain constant naval liaison with the French and in spare moments devote himself to British naval problems in the Far East where white prestige is certainly not climbing. In all this Lady Maud will be up to her usual job of aiding her "Flying Sam," as he became known when Air Minister some years ago. Recently she wrote of
"My Husband's Work and Mine": "Elections are fought on the tummies (and tempers) of the candidate and his helpers," she declared. "A succession of appetizing meals and boiling bathwater up to 2 a. m. are essential, in spite of a leaking boiler or the cook's sick relation." About to move into the palace on Whitehall of the First Lord, his politically-wise Lady concluded: "Chelsea people will, I hope, remember us in the same friendly way when we move into our new quarters. . . . It means real intimacy when the casual errand-boy can direct an inquirer to 'Sam 'Oare's 'ouse.' "