Mr. Welles Comes Home

FOREIGN RELATIONS Mr. Welles Comes Home

For a month of days and nights theU. S. public has followed the wanderings of Sumner Welles over the continent of Europe--conferring with Foreign Ministers, lunching with opposition leaders, denying reports that he had anything to say. By last week the U. S. public had read too many times that Mr. Welles, like some train that leaves the station at some odd minute nobody can remember, had entered Hitler's Chancellery at exactly 11:06 and departed at 12:01, had pulled into the presence of Il Duce at precisely 3:14 and departed at 4:28, had gone off to lunch with Count Ciano at 1:01 and returned to his hotel at 3:05.

Last week Mr. Welles arrived at the Vatican at 9:48 a. m. and left Pope Pius XII at 11:05 a.m. Following evening he left Rome, reached Genoa at 6:30 the next morning and, after a four-hour rest at his hotel, he went aboard the Conte di Savoia, which sailed at noon. The ship anchored at Gibraltar at 5:30 a. m., was boarded by British officers at 8, thoroughly searched by them (looking for German Economist Dr. Schacht, said rumors, while Berlin said he was there) and sailed on at 6:15 p. m.

Meanwhile Mr. Welles, impassive as ever after his intricate itinerary, denied some more rumors: "I wish to state categorically that I have not received any peace plan or proposals . . . that I have not conveyed any such proposals . . . nor am I bringing back to the President any such proposals." As President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull joined the chorus of deniers in Washington, foreign opinion on the Welles mission changed: like hosts speaking their mind after the guest left, editorial writers sneered at the unreality and ambiguity of the mission. Punch printed an old-fashioned cartoon showing Mr. Welles dealing in magic and spells (see cut). A hard-bitten British officer, holding up the Conte di Savoia for 13 hours while Sumner Welles sat in his cabin writing his report, took one last occasion to remind the U. S. of Britain's position: "This is war," said he. "There might be somebody aboard whom we want to take off."

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