QSHE TABLET, November Ilf/*, 1950

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, No. 5764

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, NOVEMBER 11th, 1950

SIXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE LAST OF THE FABIANS

Bernard Shaw, the Political Prophet “ A WITTY, KINDLY MAN” Bernard Shaw in his Plays. By Christopher Hollis

THE ASSUMPTION IN ENGLAND An Ancient Devotion of this Country. By H . M . Gillett THE PROCLAMATION OF THE DOGMA

Impressions in S t. Peter’s P iazza. By Patrick Bushell

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON An Appraisal for the Centenary. By Morley Jamieson

AUTUMN BOOKS SUPPLEMENT Reviews by Robert Speaight, T. A. Birrell, M. Bellasis, Gerard Meath, William Teeling, Hubert Howard, Rosemary Rcndel, Edward Hutton, Sir Leo Page, Christopher Howard, Roland Hill, Charles Burns, Humphrey Johnson, A. Gordon Smith, Illtud Evans, Lancelot Sheppard, Monica Baldwin, Hugh Montgomery, and George Scott-Moncrieff

CHINA AND THE POWERS R EPUBLICAN gains in the American elections^will mean if anything a more incisive policy in the F a r East, for little as is the p a r t now played in American politics by the old issues o f isolation and intervention, there has always been a strong Republican element to criticize the handling o f F a r Eastern afflairs by Mr. T rum an’s adm in istra tion, and in particu la r the legacy o f General Marshall’s report.

The Chinese People’s Republic has now been in existence for a little over a year. I t was proclaim ed in Peiping by Mao Tse-tung, th e scholarly General who, having served his political apprenticeship in Moscow and his military apprenticeship in the war against the Japanese, defeated Chiang K ai-shek’s N a tio nalist forces and established, for the first tim e after m any years o f internal upheavals, a central Government controlling all o f continental China.

There were many speculations in the West as to the course th a t M ao Tse-tung would follow. Unlike the Communist leaders o f the Central and Eastern European countries, he had achieved his victory w ithout a direct intervention o f the Red Army, b u t as the leader o f strong Chinese forces on whose loyalty he was able to depend. In fact, his position vis-à-vis the Cominform seemed very sim ilar to the position o f T ito—only stronger, owing to the extent o f his forces and to China’s material resources—and there were many who believed th a t in China the men in the Kremlin would meet an opposition w ith which they would not be able to cope.

This theory still exists—the British Governm ent’s policy, for instance, seems to be still very largely based upon it, believing th a t th e last th ing the Russians really want is to see Communist China accepted in the United Nations and so encouraged to believe herself independent, and even th a t the invasion o f T ibet, o r o f K orea itself, was ordered to preserve a sense o f external danger and crisis in Peiping. I t is certainly too early to declare with finality th a t Mao Tse-tung will never be anything b u t another Cominform puppet. The fact remains, however, th a t for the tim e being the supporters o f the theory o f a Chinese T ito ist movement can show very little to justify their hopes, while, on the o ther hand, the M acA rthur school and the Republican critics o f the State D epartm ent’s F a r Eastern policy have never been short o f arguments.

Only a few days ago we read o f yet another Mukden incident, once more in connection with the Western consular representatives in this largest M anchurian city, which saw the Russian defeat by the Japanese in 1905. In November last year the authorities arrested the United States ConsulGeneral there, Mr. Angus Ward, who was detained for months, accused o f beating a Chinese worker, found guilty by a local court, and finally deported from the country. This tim e it is the tu rn o f the British Consul-General, M r. Leve Stevenston, who, as the Peiping b roadcast said, “ angrily interfered and forcibly prevented” four public security men from digging an air-raid shelter in the grounds o f th e Consulate, and who “ picked up th e soil and threw it a t them ” when they re tu rned th e next day to give him a verbal explanat io n o f the air-raid precaution regulations. After th is clash, the British Consul-General was ordered to leave the country. This event, which, incidentally, disclosed the fact th a t air-raid shelters are being built in M anchurian cities, constitutes only one o f the long list o f affronts suffered by this country since the day when Mr. Bevin so hurriedly granted recognition to th e new masters o f China, hoping th a t his gesture would be rewarded by a re tu rn o f Chinese goodwill. B rer Rabbit and the B ria r Bush

In their relations w ith the Americans, too, the Chinese Communist Government seems to have taken good care to rem a in on as unfriendly term s as possible. Some tim e ago, ju s t when the Americans were relenting in their a t titu de to China’s admission to the United N ations, M ao Tse-tung seized American consular property in China and as a result made certain th a t he would n o t have th e American support which might have helped him to his seat. He is the m an o f Moscow, and i t may be tru e th a t th a t is the last th ing he really wants. L a te r on, when again there were strong currents in American public opinion, and within the adm in istra tion itself, calling for the regularization o f the position o f Communist China, a hate campaign, aim ing prim arily a t the U n ite d States, was inaugurated in China by the Peiping radio and the Party newspapers, leading up to rallies and “m anifestations” o f the various mass organizations. All th is was accepted as a confirm ation o f their thesis by those who believe th a t the Russians, while acting as the cham pions o f