Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1934. J.S. GOES TO ROME

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 8, 10 January 1934, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1934. J.S. GOES TO ROME

At the beginning of his "Leading Cases Done into English," which first appeared in 1876, Sir Frederick Pollock dedicated the book "To Algernon Charles Swinburne," but at the end of it there is also a "Dedication to J.S." in Swinburnian verse. The meaning of these initials is explained in a prose, foot-note—the whole volume isr otherwise in verse—for the benefit of non-legal readers as follows:—

This J.S. is a mythical person introduced for the purposes of illustration, and' constantly met with in the older books of our law, especially Shoppard's Touchstone: a kind of cousin to John Doe and Richard Roc, but more active and versatile. In later works and in the Indian Codes his initials, which are supposed to stand for John Stiles, have degenerated into unmeaning solitary letters, such as A, B, and C. . . . His devotion to Borne is shown by his desperate attempts,to get thcro in three days: "If J.S. shall go to Rome in three daysi' is the standing example of an impossible condition. "If" or "until J.S. shall return from Borne" is also a frequent' example of a condition or conditional limitation.

But "J.S." will stand for John Simon, just as well as for John Stiles, and when this modern J.S. returned from Rome on Sunday Sir Frederick Pollock, who at the age of 88 still has an article in one of the current magazines, cannot have failed to, notice both the contrast and the resemblance between! hia role and that of his mythical predecessor. j,, That,the "desire that was ufgehf to Romeward" of the original J.S. is retained in full measure by his successor is proved the fact that twice in ten months Sir John Simon has. felt constrained, to pay Rome a visit,-and that on each occasion his desire was sb;,eager that nothing short of flying would satisfy.it. On the. other hand, so far is going to. Rome in three days from proving an impossible, condition to the modern J.S. that, if he had not broken his journeys both at Capri and-in Paris, the three days (January 3 to 5) which" he devoted to his Roman mission would" also have covered the whole time spent in transit and left an ample margin. If the ways of diplomacy appear to be as slow in these days as they were in'the Dark Ages, it is certainly not because our diplomatists are not able to travel at a pace which our rude, forefathers had never contemplated outside of a fairy tale. It was a great" thing when in March last, after saving the Disarmament Conference from collapse,, Mr. Mac Donald and Sir John Simon were able to fly to Rome while hope was still fresh and strong and to secure the co-operation of Signor Mussolini, and the hope was strengthened by the apparent success of their labours. But the fact that all the progress then and subsequently achieved has since been reversed, and that the Conference is now dangerously deadlocked illustrates the dismal contrast between the marvellous achievements of the modern world in mechanics and the, relatively insignificant advance-that its diplomacy has made on that of the Dark Ages. " ■

We are given to understand that 1 the whole Reid of foreign policy was reviewed in the conversations between Signor Mussolini, and Sir John j Simon, but it seems a safe assumption that they did not spend much jtime on the matter which was regarded as the*most important outcome jof the interviews in March.- It was then that Signor Mussolini propounded his scheme which is generally known as the Four-Power Pact, but is sometimes, in view of the share that Mr. Mac Donald had in shaping it, called the MacDolini Pact. For some months it figured conspicuously in the hopes and fears of Europe, but, after the French amendments I designed to subordinate it to the League of Nations had been incorIporated, hope predominated. Signor Mussolini seems, however, to have found it just as difficult to bring pressure to bear upon Germany through the machinery of this Pact as in any other way. He has indeed allowed it to remain completely dormant, studiously avoiding even the appearance of complicity with Britain and France in their attempt to bring Germany to reason. Harmonious as the Mussolini-Simon conversations doubtless were, we may be sure that, so far as the Four-Power Pact was concerned, it was a case of "Oh no! We never mention her" and of lips "forbid to speak That once familiar word."

But Signor Mussolini had been a good- deal worse; than negative in the New Year's Message by which he had delighted Germany and queered the pitch for Sir John Simon just two days before the conversations were to begin. "Either the League of Nations reforms, or the .League dies" is a formula on- which Herr Hitler himself could hardly have improved. It is dogmatic and dictatorial in its tone and has doubtless been interpreted by the Nazis as fully justifying their breakaway, though Signor Mussolini has never committed himself to a public approvals of it. This threat to the League was followed by, an exposition of the Duce's : "thesis for a'durable understanding

by the Great Powers" —which is exactly what .the Four-Power Pact was supposed to effect—"with a guarantee for the peaceful evolution of the small States"—which is exactly what the changes made in the Pact to meet the objections of France and the Little Entente had already provided.

It was" a perilous, and, what is much more surprising in Signor Mussolini, a thoroughly unbusinesslike procedure, But Sir John Simon may be congratulated upon his successful handling of a matter which must have caused him acute anxiety. His statement ,to the Press as. reported on Monday makes it quite clear -'

that Italy has no intcntion'of forcing forward reform of the Leaguo of Nations, as tho dominant problem of international politics at' the present moment, and that aha may continue to bo counted upon, to play a prominent part in the proceedings at Geneva.

The subsequent statement of Mr. Anthony Eden, Sir John's able Undersecretary, that, in the opinion of both Governments, "disarmament must come first and League reform second", is more satisfactory stilK According to the "Manchester Guardian" the choice is between the League and anarchy. If the Duce sticks to his word, the League will