TH E T A B L E T , November 4th, 1950

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, N o . 5763

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, NOVEMBER 4th, 1950

SIXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY A Special Issue for the Proclamation o f the Dogma by Pope Pius XII, containing the Official Summary o f the Bull and the Texts o f the Holy Father’s Allocutions at the Consistory and in St. Peter’s Piazza

GAUDET EXERCITUS ANGELORUM So also Rejoice the Catholics o f Our Lady’s Dowry

TO A PROTESTANT FRIEND

By T . S . Gregory

NO STING OF DEATH

By M . C. D ’Arcy, S .J .

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE ASSUMPTION The Visible Tradition o f Christendom: II. By J . Duhr, S .J .

MARYMAS, OR LADY-IN-THE-HARVEST

A Poem by Violet Clifton

ELECTION U NTIL Tuesday it had seemed th a t the General Election, whenever it might come, would be centred alm ost entirely ro und housing and the cost o f living ; bo th topics o f great and obvious im portance, bu t bo th topics which raise real political issues only indirectly. Clearly everyone agrees th a t as many houses as possible should be built as speedily as possible ; and, equally, th a t inflation should be controlled and th a t prices should n o t be allowed to rise if i t can be avoided. Both raise lively issues for an election, i f people are to be unable n o t only to find houses bu t to buy anything to p u t in them. The field is open fo r promise and counterpromise, a n d such real issues as lie behind the alternative policies fo r supporting such promises will be lost to sight when the policies are regarded as a mere choice o f techniques for filling immediate needs.

I t has been well said that, whereas th e nineteenth century was the century o f economics, the tw entieth century is the century o f politics. Where then the oppressions th a t weighed upon men were in general economic oppressions—insecurity o f employment, long hours and low wages—today these things are largely remedied, the role o f the trad e unions has become prim arily one o f vigilance, and the real oppressions are political instead. But the paradox is th a t in the nineteenth century the preoccupation was nevertheless all the tim e with politics, and hopes were centred upon the power o f a vote, when the politicians who were voted for made little claim to regulate economic life ; and th a t in the tw entieth century the preoccupations are economic, so th a t when politics really have become relevant for most men and women they are obscured, overlaid by immediate economic issues like building and the cost o f living, in a distraction from problem s o f personal freedom and the p roper role o f the S tate which the politicians themselves conspire to perpetuate, the Socialists allowing themselves to appear less and less as Socialists—a recent Tribune pam phlet says th a t the basic principle o f Socialism is the d istribution o f p roperty ; a strange day for Mr. Belloc to live to see—and th e Conservatives increasingly diffident about presenting any authentic conservative philosophy o f politics.

I t was welcome, therefore, th a t the King’s Speech should force the arguments towards a deeper level, by foreshadowing legislation which has plainly no real justification in immediate needs, but is envisaged on its own philosophical merits. The projected Economic Controls Bill comes in to this category. The existing controls, o r “powers to regulate production, d istribution and consum ption and to control prices,” carried forw ard from the w ar period under the Defence Regulations,

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clearly could not, even now, be swept away overnight. I t may well be th a t the th rea t o f inflation would in any case require their extension fo r some tim e to come. But there is a great deal o f difference between adm ittin g this and saying th a t they should be made perm anent on their intrinsic merits, as p a r t o f th e norm al and enduring power o f th e adm inistra tio n , covering a te rrito ry properly to be th ought o f as the te rrito ry o f th e State.

This was th e key passage in the K ing’s Speech, bringing in all the fighting phrases, about full employment and fair shares, to save the dignity o f an occasion when nationalization could n o t be mentioned a t all, except in a n o t very im portant reference to th e British sugar-beet industry, which is p ractically under State control already ; a reference cleverly contrived, as Mr. Churchill said, to give the impression o f letting off b o th barrels w ithout h itting Tate and Lyle. “ That was th e one they were aim ing at, bu t they shot a t a pigeon and killed a crow.” Spain and the United Nations

The same hard-dying doctrinaire m ind was expressed again last week-end in the United Nations Political Committee a t Lake Success, when the British representative, while n o t going so far as to jo in an opposition led by the Soviet States and such Latin-American countries with anti-clerical regimes as U ruguay and Guatem a la, refused to jo in the United States in supporting the proposal to revoke the ban on diplomatic relations with Spain, and on Spanish participation in the various specialized agencies o f the United Nations. “Nothing has changed since 1946,” said the British representative on Saturday, and it is indeed all too plain th a t in L abour minds nothing has changed o r will change, whatever may happen ; there is the same unreasoned hostility, with the lessons o f the last four years applicable in o ther contexts, perhaps, but no t in this. When the French, a few weeks ago, rounded up, for security reasons, all the aliens judged to be too intim ately associated w ith the in te rnational conspiracy o f Communism to be allowed continued freedom, 60 per cent o f them were found to be Spanish exiles. Yet even now the F rench, who were with the British in abstaining a t Lake Success, will not believe th a t w hat General F ranco did in the years 1936-39 was to thw a rt an attem p t to impose a Moscow-controlled Communist regime in Spain, and still pretend th a t the Spaniards who had to go into exile when the civil w ar ended were characterised by the liberal democrats among them.

The Americans, while supporting the resolution a t Lake Success, have made it plain th a t they have no in tention o f