THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 199, No. 5847

FOUNDED IN 1840

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

LONDON, JUNE 14th, 1952

NINEPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

HUNGRY HUMANITY The Case for a new World Authority

CATHOLIC ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES

A French Visitor’s Impressions. By Pierre Janelle

LONG-TERM FOOD POLICY Reflections on the Farm-Price Review. By Jorian Jenks

COMMUNIST TACTICS IN ITALY New “ Popular Front” Tactics. By Bernard Wall

EDUCATION FOR THE CINEMA A LETTER FROM SCOTLAND

By Freda Bruce Lockhart

By Frank Macmillan

SECONDARY SCHOOL RELIGION The Task o f Integration. By F. H . Drinkwater

THE TAFT-EISENHOWER POLICY T HE programme which General Eisenhower has outlined in broad lines for the first time is, on American domestic issues, practically the same as that of Senator Taft. That was based on the declaration of policy made in February, 1950, by a great majority of Congressional Republicans, which proclaimed, “Liberty against Socialism.” This is a programme of a moderate conservatism, which was, however, opposed at the time by some of General Eisenhower’s main supporters of today, such as Senator Cabot Lodge, his campaign manager, and Senator Irving Ives. Only in one point does General Eisenhower differ from this declaration and from Mr. Taft, and that is in taking a rather less exalted view of the powers of the federal Government over the States, upon whose rights he insists more strongly than do the traditional Republicans. This may endear him to the Southern Democrats. He said that action against racial and religious discrimination in giving jobs to coloured people was a matter for the States to settle, and not for the Federal Government.

all those points of allied policy which remain German grievances, from unconditional surrender to the statement that he would have armed the Germans long ago had he had the power, and that the Truman administration only changed its views of the German people when it needed them as soldiers. Mr. Taft probably had his eye on the Germans of the Middle West, rather than on their kinsmen overseas, but among all Germans his views have been welcome enough. Towards Ratification at Bonn

Dr. Adenauer hopes to get the German and European Defence Treaty ratified by the Bundestag before the end of the present session, late in July. If he succeeds it will be the crowning achievement of his policy of German integration into Europe. He is confronted by two obstacles.

On foreign policy, General Eisenhower is closer to the present administration than to Senator Taft,’ but the difference is not so great as is generally supposed. Even if Mr. Taft were the incorrigible isolationist, which he is not, the next President of the United States will not substantially change the general course of American foreign policy, in particular in Europe. In the Far East the course is less certain. Both candidates place the loss of China at the doorstep of the Truman administration, but Mr. Taft is not supporting General MacArthur’s policy as fully today as he did a year ago.

In short, the field of political differences between the two candidates has been greatly narrowed. The Chicago Convention will have to choose between two personalities, not between two programmes, and, though Abilene has considerably raised the political prestige of a military man, his rival has the advantage of longer political groundwork.

Mr. Taft’s “isolationism,” as it seems today, emerged from a radio interview in Cincinnati in which he said that the United States should first increase its aircraft production. “Afterwards, that is to say, when we can do so, we shall collaborate in European defence.” In an interview for the German Press Agency which was widely published in the German newspapers, Mr. Taft said that he liked the Germansbetter than the Truman administration did, and he criticized

The Federal Constitutional Court must first decide on the constitutionality of the EDC treaty, which provides for German armed forces. The suit was brought by the Social Democrats, who contend that the Basic Law, the German Constitution, must be changed to allow for such a force. It is improbable that the Court will uphold Dr. Schumacher’s case ; if it did, a two-thirds majority vote in the Bundestag would be needed for an amendment to the Constitution, and such a majority, which the Federal Chanceller has not got, is the Socialists’ hope.

A second difficulty arises from the changed constellation in the Bundestag after the formation of the Government of the new South-West State. The Opposition has now two additional votes, and Dr. Adenauer has lost his majority in the Bundesrat, the second chamber. Although the ratification laws are so worded that the second chamber cannot make any decisions which are generally binding, its exclusion would result in lengthy legal battle before the Constitutional Court.

The new Premier of the South-West State, Herr Reinhold Maier, has therefore become an important figure on the German political scene. He is a member of the Demokratische Volkspartei, the Württemberg equivalent of the Free Democrats, but he has to put up with considerable opposition from his own followers, who want his reconciliation with the CDU, which, despite its majority, has been excluded from his Government. He is now seeking to strengthen his connection with the Social Democrats, also with a view to next year’s