f B E TABLET, July 1st, 1950

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, No. 5745

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, JULY 1st, 1950

SIXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

“ FROM SUBVERSION TO WAR” The American Answer to Kremlin’s New Aggression

CATHOLICS AND THE B.B.C Considerations Put Before the Beveridge Commission PARIS LETTER THE IMPORTANCE OF KOREA The Fall of M . Bidault’s Government The Bridge between Asia and Japan

THE PATTERN IN HUNGARY The Establishment o f “ Concentration Monasteries”

THE TROUBLE WITH CRICKET MR. HUXLEY’S DISCURSIONS

By Christopher Hollis

By Edward Sackville-West

EUROPE AND KOREA

T HE dramatic news from Washington was given to the House o f Commons in the closing stage o f the debate on the Schuman Plan, and put that plan a t once in a larger context o f the great emergency inside which it should be seen. It is surprising that men like Mr. Attlee and Sir Stafford Cripps should think it useful to make a bogey out o f a supposed sacrifice o f sovereignty, when over and over again in and after the war they were prepared to make, or did make, agreements o f which just as much could be said. Sovereignty is never lost provided it can be resumed, and is always being limited whenever a treaty is being signed, for a treaty is a binding agreement to behave in a certain way and not to behave in another way. What we were asked by the French to do was to embark on a negotiation but to accept in advance the principle—or, said Mr. Schuman, the objective, if that word is preferred as less committal—of setting up an authority for certain limited purposes.

nowhere in the debate was there any recognition from the Government side that, if their policy is to be one o f voluntary co-operation, the first step is to show more understanding and less censoriousness over the employment problem o f countries much poorer than ours, nor any realization that it is offensive to say that these Governments are not trying to achieve full employment merely because their methods, like their problems, are not identical with ours. The Problem of Japan

Referring to Mr. Foster Dulles’s recent visit to South Korea, the Communist radio o f Phoengyang, in North Korea, described him as “ the highest ranking consultant of the American State Department and the notorious ringleader o f the reactionary American ruling circle.” He had, according to the broadcast,

There was a curious defeatism about Sir Stafford Cripps when, having said that our industry would represent half the whole, he did not draw the conclusion that in this particular field o f coal and steel we should have much more to say than anyone else. Had we agreed to take part, we should have found the countries with less weight and authority a t least as anxious as we could be ourselves to prevent abuses of authority or majority rule, and, in fact, the first week in Paris has shown in what a nebulous condition the Plan is, and how wide o f the mark are many criticisms, as that it would certainly have to be irresponsible and undemocratic. But it would have been better if, last year or the year before, there had been a preliminary trial in some less vital field like civil aviation, to show that it is possible to go a little further towards unity than inter-governmental committees find it easy to do.

The Socialists ought to have cheered Mr. David Eccles when he said :—

“We have reached the stage in economic development where we ought also to agree that to maintain full employment in a free world it is equally necessary to make binding arrangements not to invade the other countries with our inflation or our deflation, and to do all we can to come to their help if unemployment comes to their country ; in fact to make operative and welcome an instrument such as is contained in the Schuman Plan.” The Government’s attitude is to think it can as a Government protect full employment here by controls which may or may not greatly increase the difficulties of our neighbours, and then as a party can appropriately throw moral odium on those countries for not being more successful ; and

“ crawled into South Korea in order to soothe and encourage the Synman Rhee traitor gang and the United Nations Korean Commission, who had been thrown into uneasiness, confusion and terror and were creating all sorts o f ugly scenes in their consternation at the vigorous struggle o f the patriotic Korean people for the peaceful unification o f the country.” This was said five days before the outbreak o f the Korean war. After that Mr. Dulles returned to Washington, where he was able to give the President and the Secretary o f State a report which became much more topical than he could anticipate when he was leaving for Japan a fortnight ago.

The principal object of his tour was to find an answer to the problem o f what to do about Japan. Since the elimination o f Japanese power in the Western Pacific area, there has been no real counterweight to Russia in that part o f the world except for the projected power o f the United States. Today Japan is disarmed, and her post-war constitution solemnly abrogates the use o f arms. Yet she remains the only nation in the Western Pacific, except for Russia, which is able, given the opportunity, to achieve a quick recovery of power, and it is necessary for the Western Powers, and especially for the United States, to make up their minds whether and by what means she should be helped in this direction.

It is quite certain that an immediate and complete withdrawal o f all American troops from Japan, and the transfer of full autonomy to the Japanese without any intermediate provisions, would result in political and economic chaos. For one thing, the Japanese are not yet economically independent. Moreover, the example o f Korea has helped to demonstrate how the Japanese Communists, following the