INTERNATIONAL: Signatures on the Axis

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Last week the shadow lengthened, the Axis grew. Men scurried across Europe signing their names, embellishing the New Order with their countries' allegiance, invoking repeatedly the word "peace" and making it seem to mean less than ever.

The first feast of signatures was spread on a yellow-tapestried table in the Gobelin Hall of old Belvedere Palace, Vienna. In these halls once roared the voice of Eugen of Savoy, one of the Habsburgs' greatest warriors. Here strode Archduke Franz Ferdinand before Sarajevo. Here whispered poor Kurt von Schuschnigg, last Chancellor of independent Austria. Here also the architects of the New Order redrew the designs of Czecho-Slovakia (Nov. 2, 1938) and Rumania (Aug. 29, 1940).

At noon, the wishing hour of mystic Adolf Hitler, four men sat down to scribble the future on four copies of a pact. By their penmanship the kingless kingdom of Hungary joined the three-way pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan on Sept. 27.

The signers were Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany, Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano for Italy, Ambassador Saburo Kurusu for Japan, Foreign Minister Count Stephen Csáky for Hungary. Adolf Hitler was not present in person, but he was close by in the Imperial Hotel, where he held a happy levee after the signing was over.

Three days later, in a sharply contrasting setting, the ceremony was repeated. This time the signatures were laid out in the heroic, shiny Reception Hall of Herr Hitler's Chancellery. This time it was Rumania's turn. Germans chuckled secretly to see how the Rumanian signer, General Ion Antonescu, glowered at the diplomats of Hungary—the country to which Germany had last August awarded Rumanian soil, but to which Germany was now pledging Rumanian partnership.

Next day, again, pens scratched under the same formula. This time Dr. Vojtetch Tuka checked in for little Slovakia, of which he is Premier and Foreign Minister. Dr. Tuka was impressive in his sombre uniform of the Hlinka Guards, and when he had signed his name he told the assembled dignitaries how he dreamed of this hour "during long years in a prison cell."

The week's crop of eager joiners would probably not be the last. These were no surprise candidates. Hungary has long been the steadfast sycophant of Germany. She was the first to climb aboard the Anti-Comintern Pact, and she was the first to gain territories with the help of the Axis. Rumania, at whose expense the more recent gains were made, joined because she had to. There were some 15,000 German soldiers garrisoned in Rumania last week as a grim guarantee of friendship. Most people thought of Slovakia as part of Greater Germany (actually the area is a "protectorate"), so its signing was no shock. The signers for both Rumania and Slovakia were political jailbirds released by the Nazis.

By signing up, the three countries became mere limbs of the Axis. They were in no sense coequal with the three leaders. Hungary did not sign Rumania's pact, Rumania did not sign Slovakia's. After all had joined, the master pact was still referred to as the Tripartite Pact.