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To the Prime Minister the appeasement policy has already been a big success. He cited five international agreements as evidence: 1) the Anglo-German "no-more-war" declaration at Munich; 2) the Anglo-Italian agreement pledging status quo in the Mediterranean; 3) the French-German treaty freezing the two countries' frontier; 4) the Anglo-Eire agreement restoring natural trade relations and evacuating British-manned forts in Eire; 5) the Anglo-American trade treaty.*
This week the House of Commons failed to concur as heartily as Mr. Chamberlain expected. Laborites mustered 143 votes (to 340) for their motion of "misconfidence" in the Chamberlain policy.
Winner & Loser. Speaking of his and Lord Halifax's forthcoming visit to Dictator Mussolini, Mr. Chamberlain warned correspondents not to speculate on "who is the winner and who is the loser in these talks." But Frenchmen were already fearful that when Mr. Chamberlain starts "appeasing" Italy, France will be the loser.
Before the boycotted dinner the Prime Minister had stated in the House of Commons that Britain had "no specific obligation" to help France in case Italy seized Tunisia. This too-literal statement alarmed the French and delighted Italians. Mr.
Chamberlain tried to undo the impression at the dinner with another sentence: "Our relations with France are so close as to pass far beyond mere legal obligations, since they are founded on identity of interest." Pressed the next day in the House of Commons for a clearer statement, Mr.
Chamberlain said: "In the view of His Majesty's Government the undertaking to respect the status quo in the Mediterranean, as embodied in the Anglo-Italian agreement, certainly applies to Tunis."
André Géraud ("Pertinax"), ace French political commentator, predicted in L'Apostrophe that Mr. Chamberlain in Rome would try to make a deal whereby France would hand to Italy the French-owned Abyssinian Railroad and a big slice of French Somaliland. In return, Italy would probably be asked to guarantee thereafter French sovereignty of Tunisia. But later, in a foreign policy debate in the Chamber of Deputies, Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet threw some cold water on any such idea: "Italy must know that France will never cede an inch of any part of her territory anywhere to Italy."
* Mr. Chamberlain's hosts, the correspondents, raised a skeptical eyebrow over this argument. Chief result of the Anglo-German declaration has been an anti-British campaign of insults in the Nazi press. On the heels of the Anglo-Italian Treaty Italy fostered a campaign demanding the French protectorate of Tunisia, which would very much disturb the Mediterranean's status quo. The French-German treaty, signed only a fortnight ago, is not yet old enough to have brought noticeable results. The Anglo-Eire and Anglo-American trade treaties had nothing to do with appeasing dictators.