INTERNATIONAL: On to Paris!

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Europe raced last week toward another dictator-manufactured international crisis. Italy called out 60,000 men for training, stationed 30,000 troops at Genoa and La Spezia. France virtually doubled her mobilization speed, decided to call up 80,000 recruits in April instead of October. Britain took the first step toward conscription (see p. 16). From Germany came alarming reports of troop movements: five new mechanized divisions had been created, two whole divisions, equipped for "desert operations," passed over the Brenner Pass into Italy headed presumably for Italian Africa, trucks were requisitioned and "spring" maneuvers were scheduled to start February 15.

To the European democracies all this looked suspiciously like the start of another frightening, methodical squeeze by the dictators. British stocks dropped, French bonds weakened, the Amsterdam market fell badly. The British Cabinet held a three-hour session, while British statesmen rushed about assuring their people that Great Britain would never, never give way to force. As the date of Führer Adolf Hitler's annual speech to the Reichstag approached (see p. 17), wild rumors circulated that the Führer would: 1) back up Friend Benito Mussolini in a Mediterranean showdown, 2) demand a redistribution of colonies, 3) ask for $10,000,000,000 as reparations for the colonies taken away from Germany after the World War.

The sound that gave Europe the "Hitler jitters" was the tramp of marching Fascists in Barcelona. Despite the official assumption in France and Britain that the triumph of Generalissimo Francisco Franco constituted no danger for them, there were facts that could not be disguised. Italian troops are still in Spain. Italy occupies lock, stock and barrel the strategic Island of Majorca. German guns back of Algeciras dominate Gibraltar, are able at any time to threaten Britain's Mediterranean "lifeline." Both France and England would have much to fear from German submarine bases on Spain's northwest coast, four of which, by well-authenticated reports, have already been established. German submarine bases on the Canary Islands could threaten Britain's route to the East around Africa. A victorious Rebel Spain, owing its very existence to German and Italian arms, was expected to join up with the dictators. Instead of having a weak, friendly Spain to her south, France would now have a strong, militarized, probable enemy to contend with. Democratic France, in short, would be bounded on three sides by Fascist powers working in concert.

In Italy, Dictator Mussolini left no doubt in anybody's mind that Barcelona's fall was a Fascist triumph and a French defeat. Prominently published was a wire from Generalissimo Franco: "I am grateful for the brilliant effort of the Italian troops who will receive the laurel of triumph with their Spanish comrades in Barcelona. . . . As General and a Spaniard, I am proud to number among my troops the magnificent [Italian] blackshirts."