THE TAB L E T , Dacembtr 2Olh, 1900

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, No. 5771

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, DECEMBER 30th, 1950

SIXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE POPE’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

The full English Version GERMANY INSIDE EUROPE The Essential Frame for an Essential Act

CARDINAL VON PREYSING

A Tribute and a Retrospect

A MASTER OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE: II

By the Abbot o f Downside

ROME LETTER

The End of the Year

THOMAS JEFFERSON

By Christopher Hollis

THE TWO CREEDS

“ T i A AN will have to decide between two creeds ; perhaps

I V I t h e most momentous choice he has had to make in the whole o f his history. It will be made not as the result o f any abstract political theory but th rough the way o f life, the way o f thought th a t each one o f us practises a t home. W hat each one o f us will have to determine is whether to consolidate what past generations have achieved for us o r to consent to its being brought to nought. Whether to preserve the spiritual inheritance common to our mother country and her kindred nations o r witness its extinction.” So spoke the King on Christm as Day and it was plain and pregnant speaking, and a call to resolution and preparedness for conflict. It came a few hours after the Holy F a th e r in Rome had spoken sadly o f “ the ambiguous and irresolute a t t i tu d e” which he sees “ adopted by some true lovers o f peace in face o f such grave peril,” and o f the spiritual and moral laxity and uncertainty inside countries which should be resolute and clearsighted as the K ing’s message. In this vital business o f the morale o f Europe, which so preoccupies the Catholic Church, the British Commonwealth has a great role to play.

The Commonwealth Prime Ministers now gathering in L ondon have an unusual responsibility. They must no t let themselves be divided and paralysed by their divisions. They must recognize th a t there is a point, and Commonwealth relations hover very near it, where the search for com prehensiveness results in there being no Commonwealth policy a t all. This has become a very marked danger since the creation o f the Asiatic Dominions, so th a t while p a r t o f the Commonwealth stands for the maintenance o f the British colonial empire another p a r t approaches these inherited responsibilities in purely political terms, with a view to ending the connection as soon as possible. The basic idea o f the Commonwealth is unity and partnership ; the partn e r ship o f European capital and skill with Asiatic and African peoples. I t is an immensely fruitful idea, but it demands for its realization not only political and economic evolution freely conceded and encouraged but also some voluntary restrain t on Asiatic and African nationalism no less th an a willingness o f British o r o ther investors to invest under the political authority o f which are their own masters. Investment and defence are as intim ately associated as investment and political restraint ; it is the business o f Asiatic statesm en to lead their peoples to an understanding o f the only way the s ta ndard o f living can in fact be raised, and how the prime conditions o f external and internal security can be realized in p ro po rtio n as a country is a member o f the Commonwealth, and are lost in p ro portio n as it is a sovereign State, dependent on its own resources.

But it is to Europe th a t the Commonwealth can speak a t th is moment, with a most heartening rem inder th a t so much o f the strength th a t is comprised under the heading o f “ G re a t Britain” is out o f the immediate reach o f the adversary. Mr. St. L aurent comes from Canada ju s t after the announcement o f the revived arrangem ents fo r flying tra in ing in Canada which meant so much ten years ago. I f the peoples o f the European mainland can learn to th ink o f the sea as we th ink o f it, as something which unites and is easily crossed, they will no t feel isolated on a little peninsula on the Asiatic land mass, but will see themselves as p a r t o f the great open area, part sea, p a r t land, which is still most o f the globe ; the defence in depth is already here.

N o Christm as broadcast th a t the King has made struck a more serious o r more timely note. Nearly all communities suffer today from an impoverishment o f leadership. Political party leaders are so placed th a t it is more difficult for them th an fo r anybody else to tell the public unwelcome tru th s . Sometimes they do so, and the occasions are greatly to their credit. More usually they do no t ; partly because the messengers o f h a rd tidings are unpopular figures, but also because the admission o f a serious situ a tio n generally involves tacit confession o f shortsightedness and improvidence on the p a r t o f those who have had all the power to ac t and all th e inform ation ; and have yet been taken by surprise. His Majesty's Ministers cannot tell the natio n how grave the hour is w ithout in effect confessing th a t they have fallen short o f the prim ary duty o f Government, which is defence ; and th a t is the simple and painful tru th , th a t they have been so busy about secondary things th a t they have neglected what should always have come first. But the King himself, precisely because he has no t the responsibility, can speak so th a t all can understand ; and those will have understood him best who know their Pilgrim's Progress best. Europe seen from America

Mr. Attlee filled the Defence M inistry and the W ar Office with Ministers who had to be moved, the one from the M inister o f Fuel and Power, the o ther from the Ministry o f Food, because neither commanded confidence. Mr. Shinwell had forfeited confidence for a fiasco over the fuel and power in the coldest p a r t o f th e year, Mr. Strachey after one o f the costliest fiascoes in recent history. I t is difficult to th ink th a t when Mr. Attlee offered such unreassuring figures these key offices, he had any conception th a t they would be the central positions in the Government, o r the ones o f most concern to our p artners in the A tla n tic Alliance. Presumably he thought o f them as dignified backwaters.

There is an equal note o f improvization about Mr. Bevin ; a to ta l impression th a t G reat Britain, as personified by him, is having continually to be prodded forw ard on a path where it would be so much more consonant w ith the national trad itio n th a t we should be, if no t leading, a t any rate fully