Last week passed the second anniversary of Munich: Sept. 29, 1938.
Three Against the U. S.
The morning of Sept. 27, 1940 A.D., which corresponds to the 18th year of the Fascist Era and the 15th year of Showa (the reign of Japan's Emperor Hirohito), dawned clear and quiet in Berlin. There had been no air raid the night before and His Excellency Señor Don Ramón Serrano Suñer, Spain's Minister of Government and Falangist Party Leader, had had a good night's sleep. Don Ramón, who had been a visitor in Berlin for nearly three weeks, had, as usual, very little to do. He took a stroll in the direction of the Chancellery and on the way he ran into a phalanx of plum-cheeked school children, each carrying three paper flags—German, Italian and Japanese. They were on their way to the Chancellery to welcome Italy's Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano.
Don Ramón was not surprised to see the flags the children carried, but newspaper correspondents were. For a fortnight they had been led to expect that the big Axis doings which were obviously under way had to do with Don Ramón's country. While German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop conferred with Count Ciano and Benito Mussolini in Rome they had filed Foreign-Office-inspired dispatches about Axis designs on Gibraltar, on the Near East, on Africa—but hardly a line about the Far East. This morning they learned that they had been thoroughly hoaxed. Lean, hollow-eyed Don Ramón had been posted in Berlin as a scarecrow to keep them out of the Axis chicken yard until another batch of eggs had hatched.
When the correspondents were admitted to the vast Hall of Ambassadors in the Chancellery, they observed that Don Ramón Serrano Suñer was not there. Neither was any member of the diplomatic corps except slim, suave Saburo Kurusu, who represents Japan in Berlin and has a Nazi-phobe American wife. Just outside a door that leads to the offices of Adolf Hitler a long table had been placed. Ambassador Kurusu sat there, as did Count Ciano and Herr von Ribbentrop. Before them, on the table, lay a thin document in triplicate.
At precisely 1:15 o'clock in the afternoon Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop scrawled his signature at the bottom of the first copy of the document, addressed himself to duplicate and triplicate. Count Ciano followed him and Ambassador Kurusu signed last. The signing took two minutes. As Ambassador Kurusu laid down his pen the door behind him opened. With a nervous, catlike walk Adolf Hitler came in. He shook hands with the Italian and Japanese emissaries, sat down next to Ciano. Joachim von Ribbentrop stood up and through a battery of microphones proceeded to tell the world that Japan had joined the Axis.
"New Order of Things." The agreement contained only 419 words, consisted of a preamble and six short articles. The preamble was bombastic, the articles curt, clear, complete. Excerpts: