The Scheme

The civil war in Spain is "the nerve centre of international politics" according to British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden last week, and on this theory it was arranged to window dress the opening of Parliament in London (see p. 25) with a British diplomatic victory scored in the London International Committee on Non-intervention in Spain.

Window-Dressers Benito Mussolini and Neville Chamberlain have been intimately corresponding for months (TIME, Aug. 9). It was clearly no accident that the Italian Premier suddenly agreed last week to a British scheme of July 14 which had seemed as dead as Queen Anne. Spade-bearded Italian Ambassador Dino Grandi, on orders from Rome, brought the moribund Non-intervention Committee to life by making this "concession'' to the British last week in concert with the German Delegate, Dr. Ernst Woermann --for Adolf Hitler had also suddenly discovered that he no longer objects to the British scheme of July 14.

Exactly what this scheme was has been more or less forgotten, and the Committee members floundered somewhat in their statements, with Britain most eager and France willing to put through an immediate, unanimous agreement. The Scheme:

1) A few thousand of the foreigners now fighting in Spain shall withdraw from the Rightist and also from the Leftist side; 2) After these "token withdrawals," commissioners dispatched by the Non-intervention Committee shall ascertain with fair accuracy the numbers of interventionists, this with a view to the ultimate withdrawal of all in "progressive and proportional" stages; 3) When the Nonintervention Committee finds these large-scale withdrawals have reached a "substantial" total, the Great Powers are to grant full belligerent rights to the Rightist Government and to the Leftist Government.

With this scheme sufficiently advanced for the London Committee to be all smiles and cordiality for the first time in months, only Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky darkling, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told Britain's newly-met House of Commons: 1) That he believes the "idea" that Italy intends to hold the Balearic Islands after the Spanish war is over to be "unfounded"; 2) That he accepts "as being given in good faith" Italian assurances that Italy has "no territorial or strategic or even economic designs on Spain." Pointing to Premier Mussolini's consent to adopt the British scheme of July 14 and immediately make "token withdrawals" of Italians from Spain as evidence of the Tightness of these conclusions, the Prime Minister voiced his own pious hope that the last volunteer will soon be withdrawn. He then asked a vote of confidence on the foreign policy of His Majesty's Government and won 204-to-111.

Meanwhile last week The Scheme was rapidly falling to pieces as members of the Non-intervention Committee consulted their home governments and received instructions. The Soviet Government threw a monkey wrench by insisting that all volunteers must have withdrawn from Spain before Moscow will agree to granting belligerent rights to Franco. The Italian Government threw an equally deadly spanner, although loudly blaming Moscow for having already caused the wreck, by declaring that Italy could not promise to be bound by findings of the Committee as to the number of volunteers on each side in Spain and consequently as to the proportion in which they should withdraw. Leftist sympathizers were already claiming that volunteers with the Rightists outnumber 4-to-1 volunteers with the Leftists, clamoring that therefore four must quit the Rightists for every one who quits the Leftists. Berlin threw in a small pair of pliers to the effect that both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini see no difference between a "volunteer" who is fighting as a soldier and one who is fighting as a propagandist--i.e., Der Fuehrer and Il Duce want what they call "the Red Agents of Moscow" also withdrawn from Spain.

There was a bare chance this week that the London Committee could "find a formula" to make progress with The Scheme, but only a bare chance.

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