TH E T A B L E T , D ecen itr »I», 1950

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, No. 5768

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, DECEMBER 9th, 1950

SIXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

ANGLO-AMERICAN UNITY

Mr. Attlee’s Washington Visit

THE SCHUMAN PLAN

A Constructive European Enterprise

THE CAMPAIGN IN MALAYA

The Need for Reassurance

DR. JULIAN HUXLEY AND THE WESTERN DILEMMA

By the Abbot of Downside

THE HOLY YEAR EXHIBITIONS GUIDO OF AREZZO 970-1050

By a Rome Correspondent

The Perfecting of Musical Notation

CHRISTMAS BOOKS SUPPLEMENT Reviews by T . S . Gregory, Peter Watts, Yvonne ffrench, A. J . Brooker, J . Lewis May, Rosemary Hughes, Lancelot Shepherd, George Temple, Shane Leslie, George ScottMoncrieff, Evelyn Waugh, B . C. L . Keelan, M . Bellasis, John Eales, Robert Speaight,

D . B . Wyndham Lewis, Illtud Evans, Edward Quinn

TODAY’S TEMPTATION I T is a fo rtu nate feature o f the constitution o f the United N a tions th a t the Assembly can decide to debate by majority voting, and so Mr. Vishinsky has been defeated in his attem p t to prevent the Assembly from discussing the aggression o f the Chinese Communist Government. Mr. Vishinsky’s argument is th a t the Chinese Communist Government is no t concerned ; th a t the Chinese fighting in Korea are volunteers, acting as private individuals, and th a t the m a tte r is one exclusively for the Security Council, where the Soviet veto suffices to prevent any decision. Nothing could be clearer th an th a t his one aim is to reduce to nothing the role o f the United N ations, because it is the political strategy o f the Kremlin to isolate the United States, to separate the Americans from all o ther countries, and particularly from the Governments o f Asia. That these Governments are members o f the United N ations, proud o f their membership, and conscious th a t this can be a great source o f protection to them i f the Red hurricane should arise on their frontiers, constitutes an em barrassm ent to Soviet plans. N o t only the American Government, but all the United N a tions have something very valuable to protect in their machinery for common action which proved so useful this summer in the first phase o f the Korean crisis. They must be very careful no t to be tricked ou t o f it, and they will be tricked o u t o f it i f they reward the successful aggression o f the Pekin Government by an offer o f partnership to people whose great object is n o t to make the United Nations work, but to make quite sure th a t it cannot.

State against which the United Nations is taking preventive o r enforcem ent action .” I t is clear th a t a less eligible candidate th an Communist China can hardly be conceived. But as the Soviet Union has been a prom inent member all the tim e it has been successfully destroying the political independence o f o th e r States, the objection may be thought pedantic a t this tim e o f day. The advantage o f the United N ations, it is said, is much more lim ited but still real ; it is a place o f meeting and confrontation, a world theatre, where the Kremlin and its satellites have to make some sort o f defence, and as such it is more th an ever useful now th a t ordinary diplom atic intercourse has been so transform ed for the worse in Soviet lands.

The whole o f this Chinese operation was n o t improvised o f short notice, and it is itself unmistakably merely a p a r t o f much larger designs now approaching the stage when they can be p u t in to execution. But the United Nations has proved more o f an obstacle than the Kremlin ever imagined when Mr. Molotov was taking a leading p a r t in so fram ing its rules th a t it could always be sterilized by a Soviet veto. Behind the Chinese Screen

I t is not a great deal the Assembly can do ; the constitution o f the United Nations reserves all the serious and detailed initiative in protecting peace o r proceeding against aggression to the Security Council, which out o f eleven members needs seven affirmative votes, including those o f all four perm anent members, o f which the Soviet Union is one. But the Assembly can discuss whatever it chooses, by a two-thirds majority, to discuss, and it can form and express judgments, and call upon the Security Council in a way th a t throws into relief any obstruction in th a t Council.

The immediate tem p ta tion to destroy the future possibilities o f the United N ations, strong as it may look, ought to be very firmly resisted, even if such a course means accepting for the moment fu rth e r and graver military reverses. The whole world, in particular the threatened countries o f Asia and Europe, will be quick to scent demoralization and will rightly a ttach far more im portance to it th an to any purely military defeat. The Asiatics know th a t the Japanese carried all before them for a time, and yet were most decisively crushed. The Europeans know th a t H itler carried all before him, and yet he too was destroyed. But the Asiatic W ar and the European War were won because America in Asia and Britain in Europe never faltered, and each supported the o ther and together they headed a vast tr ium phant coalition o f the free world. We have already paid very dearly for the colossal e r ro r o f pretending th a t Communist Party leaders are national statesm en with the norm al interests, and the lim ited aims, o f national statesm anship.

To become a member, a State undertakes to “ refrain from the th rea t o r use o f force against the te rrito ria l integrity o r political independence o f any S tate ,” and “ to assist the United N a tio ns in any action it takes, and no t to assist any

When asking the American Congress for increased military appropriation, President T rum an stated th a t the Chinese Communists have been forced into their present reckless