The Swiss press, in much distress, urged the clearing up of this tragic mystery, which so foully stained the records of the noble city of Geneva, so beautiful in structure, so chaste in habits, so idealistic in outlook, the centre of the intellectual thought of Europe, and, above all, so cheap to live in. For their part (so said _La Suisse_), they attributed these outrages to criminal agents from the hotels and shops of Brussels, Vienna, and other cities which might be mentioned, who had been sent to discredit Geneva as a safe and suitable home for the League. Fortunately, however, such discrediting was impossible: on the contrary, the cities discredited were the above-mentioned, which had hatched and put into execution such a wicked plot. The extracts selected from the British press spoke with various voices. The _Morning Post_ commented, without much distress, on the obvious disintegration and collapse of the League, which had always had within itself the seeds of ruin and now was meeting its expected Nemesis. Such preposterous houses of cards, said the _Morning Post_, cannot expect to last long in a world which is, in the main, a sensible place. It did not now seem probable that, as some said, Bolshevists were behind these outrages; on further consideration it was not even likely to be Irish traitors; for these sections of the public would doubtless approve the League, typical as it was of the folly which so strongly actuated themselves. Far more likely was it that their assaults were the work, misguided but surely excusable, of the Plain Man, irritated at last to execute judgment on these frenzied and incompetent efforts after that unprofitable dream of the visionary, a world peace. It was well known that the question of disarmament was imminent.... The _British Bolshevist_ (its leader, not its correspondent, who seldom got quoted by the _Press Bulletin_) agreed with the _Morning Post_ that the house of cards was collapsing because of its inherent vices, but was inclined to think that the special vice for which it was suffering retribution was its failure to deal faithfully with Article 18 of the Covenant, which concerned the publicity of treaties. The _British Bolshevist_ always had Article 18 a good deal on its mind. The _Times_ said that these strange happenings showed the importance of keeping on frank and friendly terms (the _Times_ often used these two incompatible adjectives as if they were synonymous) with France. They served to emphasise and confirm that _entente_ of which the British people were resolved to suffer no infringement. The _Daily News_ thought that the enemies of disarmament and of the various humanitarian efforts of the League were responsible for these assaults. The _Manchester Guardian_ correspondent said that at last the Assembly, formerly a little dull, had taken on all the interest of a blood and thunder melodrama.... 35