TEE TABLET, July 19th. 1952

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, N o . 5852

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, JULY 19th, 1952

NINEPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE NEW SCHUMAN PLAN Some Possible Consequences o f the Proposed European Federation MR. NEHRU AND THE NEO-MALTHUSIANS

Specious Suggestions for Meeting India’s Population Problem

THE CAREER OF FRANZ VON PAPEN

An Aristocrat in the Service o f the Third Reich THE QUAKER TERCENTENARY Reflections o f a Catholic. By H . W . J . Edwards

A VISIT TO THE BOLLANDISTS

By Kees van Hoek

ON HISTORICAL NOVELS

By Christopher Hollis

THE GENIUS OF CLAUDE MONET

By Robert Sencourt

THE DEMOCRATS AT CHICAGO T H E Democratic Convention opens on Monday, also a t Chicago, w ith out any obvious candidate, o r any man who has campaigned as both Senator Taft and General Eisenhower had done. G overnor Stevenson, Senator Kefauver, Mr. H arrim an and th e others do no t give the impression o f presidential stature. By adopting G eneral Eisenhower the Republicans have greatly improved their November chances, even though th e odds are still with the Democrats, who, wiser in their generation th an the English Liberals, have succeeded so far in preventing the creation o f an avowedly working-class party, and still hold the support o f thè political Left in domestic questions. But internationally the Democrats will be unable to find anyone to match General Eisenhower as a world figure, unless they can compel President T rum an to accept renom ination, as the only way to ensure victory for the party. The Republican Party in th e past was always less in te rnationally-m inded th an the Democrats, the elephant strangely more domesticated to the American scene th an the donkey ; and th e legacy o f Woodrow Wilson gave F ranklin Roosevelt a flying s ta rt. General Eisenhower has been, for eight years o f Democratic rule, a leading representative o f American policies abroad ; so th a t it would ill become him personally to make too much o f the mistakes o f the Roosevelt era, as was made in the agreed programme o f the Republican Party, settled th e day before General Eisenhower’s victory, which makes th e Democratic Administration exclusively responsible for the fate o f the Baltic States, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

been a consistency about telling the Europeans they must do more fo r themselves, and do so w ithout easier access to the dollar market ; with General Eisenhower the Europeans who ask to be allowed to earn more dollars must either be allowed to , o r else the Americans must invest more o f their surplus abroad. The First Round at Bonn

D r. Adenauer has won the first round o f the parliam entary battle fo r the ratification o f the Bonn Agreements, and the second and th ird readings o f the Bill will follow after the holidays, probably in September. The tim e factor has no t been unim portant, and Government coalition and opposition parties have agreed to leave the final decision until the autum n . This is a concession to those who want to await the judgm ent o f the Federal C ourt on the question whether the proposed German defence contribution is constitutional, and to those who place their hopes in the renewal o f F our Power talks. The SPD wants to hold such talks as soon as possible, and to postpone ratification indefinitely, o r to prevent i t altogether. The F ree Democratic Party wants to ratify the Agreements, b u t only after first demonstrating by F o u r Power talks th a t the Russians do no t seriously intend to perm it Germany to be reunited in peace and freedom. The Christian Democrats aim a t ratification in September, because they believe th a t F o u r Power talks will be all the more likely to succeed the stronger the Western Powers become before they begin. By now making fully his own th e old Socialist dem and fo r talks with the Russians D r. Adenauer has left his opposition with little to disagree with him about, and last week a Socialist m otion found unanim ous support fo r once, from the extreme right to the Communist benches in the Bundestag.

Perhaps the chief and best lesson o f the Republican convention was the m oral revulsion from the over-sharp and grasping tactics o f Senator T a f t’s managers, pointing the moral th a t public support is easily lost by anything th a t looks unworthy o f a great country a t a great time.

One o f the best things th a t has come ou t o f the Eisenhower trium ph so far is a realization th a t the party will be trying to ride two horses in opposite directions if the foreign trade policy o f the country does no t come more into line with what it is asking the European countries to do. The Republicans, having chosen as their champion a man who has said so much about the solidarity o f the A tlantic world, cannot very well go on with ta riff policies which, in fact, keep th a t world in disequilibrium . U nder Senator Taft there would have

The G erm an Socialists are in a dilemma. D r . Schumacher’s statem ent, some tim e ago, th a t whoever voted for the Bonn Agreements could no longer be regarded as a German patriot, is beginning to embarrass a party which is seeking to win a majority in next year’s elections, for whichever party succeeds next year will have to honour the signatures o f the present Germ an Government. The Socialists are divided between moderating their tone—they even spoke o f “ our American friends” last week—and continuing the policy o f denuncia­