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Briton against Briton? With the Rhineland crisis thus tangled some European wiseacres believed a story that Ambassador von Ribbentrop had banged his fist on Mr. Anthony Eden's desk and uttered threats. The most painstaking and detached analysis of the situation was by seasoned Vladimir Poliakoff, the "Augur"' of the New York Times, who wrote: "Behind the smoke screen of the Franco-German tussle over the Rhineland... an internal political crisis is slowly maturing in London. No less is in the balance than the choice of a successor to Stanley Baldwin as leader of the Conservative Party and as Prime Minister."
Recalling the fact that some months ago Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain— and the then Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare were major rivals to succeed Squire Baldwin, "Augur" made the direct charge that Mr. Chamberlain and not British public opinion was chiefly responsible for knifing the Hoare-Laval deal which might have made peace between Italy and Ethiopia (TIME, Dec. 30). In the case of the present White Paper, upon which Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Eden jointly lavished their best efforts, "Augur" charged that this was last week in course of being knifed by Sir Samuel Hoare & friends as a blow at the Chancellor's chances of becoming Prime Minister. Concluded "Augur": "Mr. Baldwin seems to have lost his grip on the situation entirely. Unless he becomes active soon and stages a comeback the outcry against him in the ranks of the party and among the public generally may become overwhelming."
Britain's Signature. In the House of Commons a dog-tired-looking Anthony Eden finally rose to speak. He had spent the week-end in the country with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. On his return to London he had participated in folding up the Council of the League of Nations which had met in London to deal with the Rhineland crisis. The Council had voted Germany guilty of violating the Versailles Treaty and the Locarno Pact but had done nothing toward punishing these violations. As their final decision at London last week, the Geneva statesmen adjourned indefinitely to meet again in Geneva.
Just before facing the House of Commons, Mr. Eden conferred for an hour and a half at the British Foreign Office with Ambassador von Ribbentrop, who had just breakfasted at No. 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister. Such hospitality at such a moment undercut any sign of British firmness against Germany which listeners might think they heard in the opening of Foreign Secretary's speech to the House of Commons. "I want, in all bluntness, to make this plain to the House: I am not prepared to be the first Foreign Secretary to go back on the British signature! . . . Many people may think the territory of France and Germany should be treated on exactly equal terms. Those, however, are not the terms of the Versailles and Locarno treaties to which Britain is bound by her signature.
"We are not arbiters!" declared the Foreign Secretary. "We are guarantors of a treaty. We have certain commitments and they are very definite. . . . The demilitarized [Rhineland] zone embodied in the Versailles Treaty was for time without limit. It was an enduring undertaking."