"We and You"

Franklin Roosevelt last week conducted a school for ambassadors. Home for a seminar on U. S. foreign policy were Hugh Wilson (Berlin), William Phillips (Rome) and William Bullitt (Paris). On the way from London was Joe Kennedy (nominally on his way to Florida to spend Christmas with his son Jack), and called home from China was Nelson Johnson, who by traveling his fastest can reach Washington next month.

Messrs. Wilson and Phillips proceeded to teach the teacher. Both were alarmed at the sharpness with which Franklin Roosevelt--and U. S. public opinion--has slapped at Dictators Hitler and Mussolini, and by implication has frowned upon Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of "appeasing" Fascism. Instead of being told that they should revamp their views to fit Washington's, they persuaded the President to leave foreign policy out of his Chapel Hill speech (TIME, Dec. 12), and further to soften his democratic dander last week.

It was no secret around Washington, however, that Joe Kennedy was in for an admonition for publicly expressing views like those that Messrs. Wilson and Phillips held in private. For Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were irritated by Joe Kennedy's speech at the annual Trafalgar Day dinner of Britain's Navy League, praising Neville Chamberlain for the Munich deal. To Secretarv Hull's mind that excursion into British politics was as bad as if the British Ambassador to the U. S. had intervened in a scrap between Republicans and Democrats.

The problems of the President's seminar on U. S. foreign policy were sharply pointed up by the arrival in the U. S. of an unofficial ambassador from Great Britain. The President took pains to say he would receive ex-Foreign Minister Anthony Eden as one more visiting Englishman. But it was perfectly clear that they would meet this week as one democrat talking to another in an autocrats' world, for Mr. Eden quickly made it obvious that he had come to the U. S. as an apologist for Britain. Personable Mr. Eden had many an advantage for his job. Having quit as Neville Chamberlain's Foreign Secretary because he opposed the Chamberlain policy, he could talk easily to U. S. citizens who did not approve it. He also could expect respect for whatever he had to say, since Neville Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons last week that Mr. Eden was in the U. S. to express, unofficially of course, "the British view."

The National Association of Manufacturers had promised Mr. Eden $5,000 and expenses to address its Congress of American Industry (see p. 47), and he was in fine fettle when he arrived in Manhattan.* With him was his blue-eyed, brunette wife. In his party also was Ronald Tree, M.P., who served him as coach, buffer and expert on U. S. psychology. Ronald Tree is the Chicago-born grandson of Marshall Field. Thus guided, Anthony Eden endeared himself to street crowds, got along well with reporters. At the start of his speech at the Waldorf-Astoria, he said: ". . . This visit of mine . . . has no political significance whatever. It is not official, my visit: it isn't even semi-official or even a sixteenth-part official. It is a visit of friendship."

At this his audience of 4,100 businessmen and their guests laughed long and heartily. Friendly Mr. Eden proceeded to expound the British view via 300 radio stations, saying almost nothing specific, but conveying the impression that Britain now feels that in spite of Munich, she will sooner or later have to fight to preserve democracy from Fascism (see p. 18) and that, when the time comes, she hopes to have U. S. sympathy. Salient excerpts: "National animosities have not been exorcised. On the contrary, they appear to be intensified under the banner of rival ideologies. Nor has the way of peace been made plain." ". . . We are acutely conscious of the need to defend ourselves ... to make sure where we stand, what it is we stand for, and having made sure, to stand firm."

"We and you stand for democracy. . . .

"We know that we must champion our ideals. ... I speak now as a citizen of Great Britain--we know that this endeavour will once again tax our strength and our endurance to the uttermost. For all of this in spirit we are preparing. Nor, I beg you to believe, are we calling out for help to others, nor seeking to lure others to pull our chestnuts from the fire."

To Franklin Roosevelt who also champions democratic ideals, these must have been ominous words. For although he has no intention of getting the U. S. into another war in Europe, if Britain finds her strength and endurance taxed, the day is measurably closer when, willy-nilly, U. S. strength and endurance may be similarly taxed for the same reason.

As an apologist for Britain's recent record as a champion of democratic ideals, Mr. Eden in private dinners and talks with bigwigs and editors in Manhattan found explaining it all away difficult, but when he turned to an ambassador's lighter duties he had a good press. Newsreaders noted that he retired immediately after his speech for the manufacturers, breakfasted on orange juice and scrambled eggs, went sightseeing, chinned for 45 minutes with New York City's libertarian Mayor LaGuardia. Mrs. Eden meantime danced until 2 a. m., lunched at swank "21," impressed U. S. women with the "quiet perfection" of her clothes, admired and bought U. S. stockings. Together the Edens saw (and were appalled by) the vaudecomedy hit, Hellzapoppin, visited the site of New York's World's Fair of 1939 with Director Grover Whalen.

Anthony Eden's red carnation definitely outdid Mr. Whalen's white one. But Mr. Eden's adjectives delighted Mr. Whalen. Said Mr. Eden: ". . . Impressive . . . stupendous . . . tremendous . . . magnificent."

When a British newshawk inquired whether a political explosion in Europe was likely to mess up the Fair, Grover Whalen--who says that Europe is thinking more about his Fair than about war-- gasped and hastily led Mr. Eden away.

* The Economic Club of New York previously offered Anthony Eden $1,200 and expenses, was turned down.

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