September 12, 1935

In baseball news, the Cardinals and the Cubs both won, leaving the Cardinals one game ahead in the NL pennant race. The Cubs stomped the Dodgers, 13-3 at Wrigley. The Cards were winners, 5-2, over the Giants at Sportsman's Park. The Senators shut out the Indians, 3-0, behind staff ace Earl Whitehill. The victory raised their record to 59-76. It was the third straight win for the Nats. The Tigers remained atop the AL by a comfortable margin, downing the Yankees, 8-5. Their loss left the Yankees with a 78-55 record, eight and a half games off the pace.

In world news, the U.S. issued a statement which included the following language:

"On September 3, having discovered that an American corporation was a party to a newly granted commercial concession the conclusion of which had added to the perplexities and difficulties confronting the governments and other agencies which are intent upon preservation of peace, the American Government took prompt steps toward removal of this obstacle to peaceful settlement. In connection with that matter, the Secretary of State said at his press conference: "The central point in the policy of this Government in regard to, the Italian and Ethiopian controversy is the preservation of peace-to which policy every country throughout the world is committed by one or more treaties-and we earnestly hope that no nations will, in any circumstances, be diverted from this supreme objective."

This was the oil concession referred to in my earlier post regarding September 9, 1935. What the U.S. had done was more fully revealed by the Time magazine report of September 16, 1935:

"In Addis Ababa last week, Ethiopian courtiers told correspondents that their Emperor was angrily rebuking U. S. Chargé d'Affaires Cornelius Engert inside the Royal Palace.

"The Emperor considers that Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with gross misjudgment in persuading the Standard Vacuum Oil Company to cancel the Rickett concession," said the Emperor's spokesman, adding that His Majesty told Mr. Engert hotly: "We need the co-operation of somebody—instead of obstacles, OBSTACLES!"

Co-operation was what no Great Power would give Ethiopia last week except in words (see p. 18). The blatant announcement last fortnight that Haile Selassie had conceded subsoil rights in half his empire to British Promoter Francis Rickett and his mysterious backers (TIME, Sept. 9) was universally called by statesmen and financiers last week a "n----r trick." Anything but smart was this dusky African potentate's pathetic belief that President Roosevelt would defend Ethiopia against Italy as a result of the midnight signing of the Rickett concession. Equally footless was his loss of temper in accusing Secretary Hull of "gross misjudgment." This petulant error Chargé d'Affaires Engert erased by denying the assertions of the Emperor's own entourage that he expressed himself in violent terms. According to Diplomat Engert the Emperor merely voiced "regret" that Standard Oil is not to lead the U. S. Marines to the rescue."

The racist language of Time's report reveals what was perhaps one of the most important reasonas why Ethiopia received no real assistance from the U.S., Britain or France. None of these countries wanted Ethiopia to be an example of successful resistance to European aggression by an independent African state - ruled by Africans. Remember, France and Britain were both major imperial powers in Africa in 1935.