It is interesting to note that the "Evening Standard" is taking a firm stand against newspaper reports which tend to enhance the war scare at present prevailing. A great deal too much has been made of rumours pending speeches by either of the dictators, and there cannot be the slightest doubt that much wholly unnecessary anxiety has been caused by wild speculation, and the circulation of, stories which on proper investigation have been found to be without the slightest foundation, The reference to Mme. Tabouis, the diplomatic correspondent of the Paris "L'CEuvre" is by no means uninteresting. That the lady in question has made several interesting prophecies cannot for one moment be denied, and within the past few years she has succeeded in establishing a reputation for accurate prediction far in excess of its actual merits. Not only that her stories of what has been going en behind the scenes would, if indeed they were always correct, have indicated the control of a secret intelligence service far better than any of those upon which some nations spend sums of money far beyond the reach of the cleverest diplomatic correspondent. Of recent months Mme. Tabouis has not been so successful with her prognostications, and. it seems now that over the week-end Herr Hitler let her down most badly. He did not occupy Liberia. nor even send an ultimatum io Poland. There was also no basis in fact for the declaration that Italy planned to seize Tangiers on Sunday. Three misfires in one week-end is likely to do damage to the most efficient of prophets, and will not enhance Mme. Tebouis's reputation. That, however, does not absolve the newspaper publishing her writings from the responsibility for such wholly unnecessary and distinctly unfortunate sensationalism. Times are bad enough without publicists seeking to make them worse, by the arousing of fears which the event does not justify. Fortunately many people are no longer misled by the enthusiasm of this writer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.