Pulse

The dire day--March 6--on which many a European correspondent predicted war would come to Europe passed by early this week. No ultimatums were delivered, no troops marched (except in Spain), and the dictators even temporarily ceased barking for more land. Instead of being War Week, no week in months had been so generally peaceful in Europe.

A political physician diagnosing Europe's health would have reported that while the patient still had some fever and complications might easily set in, there was still a 50-50 chance that he would regain normal health. One reason for that chance is obviously that the democracies have a little more marrow in their bones since Munich. French and British defense--and hence morale--have distinctly improved. Mr. Roosevelt's tough talk against the dictatorships has helped. It was even possible to construe in Herr Hitler's statement that Germany must "export or die" an invitation to commerce rather than war. Typical French move was a conference of high French Generals in Tunisia at which General Auguste Nogues, Resident General and Commander-in-Chief of all French Armed Forces in Morocco, presided.

Appease Stalin? Generally accepted as Britain's No. i reason for abandoning Czecho-Slovakia last fall was the antipathy of the British ruling class toward the U.S.S.R., CzechoSlovakia's nearest friend. Even though they know that probably no combination in Europe could beat France, Britain and Russia, most British bigwigs hate and fear "the Bolshies." Significant it was, therefore, when Prime Minister Chamberlain and most of his Cabinet turned up last week at a Soviet Embassy reception given by Soviet Ambassador Ivan M. Maisky. Laborite James Ramsay MacDonald was the last British Prime Minister to tread that ground.

Above the reception room mantel was a stone-hewn hammer & sickle and a portrait of Dictator Stalin. Drinking champagne, but not touching the bountiful caviar and vodka, Mr. Chamberlain stood below a portrait of Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff all evening, talked with Comrade Maisky for a half hour, departed at n p.m., whereupon the orchestra began to swing.

Having decided no longer to ignore the Bolsheviki--to the amusement of Cartoonist Gabriel in the London Daily Worker (see cut), Mr. Chamberlain's new policy became economic as well as social. Leaving next week for a tour of northern Europe is a British trade delegation. It will go first to Berlin, where it will stop for only a day. It will then proceed to Warsaw for a three-day stop and from there to Moscow for five or more days. Most prominent in the delegation will be Robert Spear Hudson, Secretary of the Department of Overseas Trade, who once warned Germany that Britain could beat her at the barter game, and Mr. Frank T. A. Ashton-Gwatkin, Foreign Office economist who also has written novels about Japan under the name of John Paris. Evidently Dictator Joseph Stalin was now to have his share of "appeasement."

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