7777? TABLET, August 16th, 1952.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, No. 5856

LONDON, AUGUST 16th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PU B L IS H ED AS A N EW SPA PER

EASY PHRASES AND HARD FACTS The Discordance in the New Labour Party Statement

ROUGH PASSAGE Mr. Nicolson’s Official Biography o f King George V

SELLING IN THE MIDDLE EAST Why British Traders are Losing Markets. By Charles P . Brown MILITARISM AND COMMUNISM IN GERMANY

I : The Liquidation o f Picasso’s Doves of Peace FRANCIS THOMPSON AND WILFRID MEYNELL

A First Extract from Viola Meynell’s New Study

ORDINARY CHRISTIANS

By Mgr. R. A . Knox

TOO MANY SHOPS?

By Geoffrey Lesson

A CAPITAL DAY FOR EUROPE T HIS week is a notable date in the history o f Europe. The Schuman Plan was inaugurated, with its seat at Luxembourg. This is the work o f men who are o f the same mind as Signor de Gasperi speaking at T rento a few days before, “ Europe saves herself by unity o r her fate is sealed.” We can well be thankful that there have emerged, chiefly in France and Germany, sufficient statesm anship and public understanding to make this decisive step possible. There are ju s t enough men who understand th a t what they are doing is fundamentally a return to common sense ; th a t the political map and lines o f frontier divisions do not in the least correspond to the necessities o r interests o f the people who are alive today ; the Rhineland Valley map is a legacy o f long past feudal and dynastic struggles, the fortunes o f war and diplomacy from the n in th century to the nineteenth, lines with nothing sacrosanct about them except in so far as they have become symbolic, and except in so far as they mean living under one kind o f Government o r another ; th a t is the crux, th a t if frontiers are to mean less, and they must be made to mean less, Government and law must mean approxim ately the same everywhere, and must be such th a t no minorities need fear the public au tho rity where they live. The condition o f more unity is moderation in Government, and that is one reason why the Germ an Socialists are so lukewarm.

which would have been unthinkable before 1945. And if these advances such as the Schuman Plan, however different from what it was originally meant to be, and the European Defence Treaty, will be no more than the nucleus a round which a politically united Europe will later take place, their aims will have been amply achieved.

It is the purpose o f the Schuman Plan to establish a common market within which raw materials necessary for coal and steel production can be produced and freely circulated. Coal and steel will be produced where this is possible with the least human effort ; they will be put in the best conditions a t the disposal o f consumers who can make best use o f them. Many difficulties will show themselves as this excellent plan is being realized. Already, the Benelux countries are concerned with safeguarding their independence as m inor producers. Belgium, for instance, will find th a t some o f its mines cannot stand up to the competition o f neighbouring producers, and th a t the continued exploitation o f a number o f Belgian mines will become a non-paying proposition. The Belgians will want to know if, on sacrificing these poorer mines, they will nevertheless be able to pay their way, and maintain existing wage scales. The French, as the Belgians, are afraid th a t their lesser-quality coal products might be elim inated, and that the French iron works, despite their considerable improvement with Marshall Aid, will be forced under by German competitors. The F irs t Tasks

It is from the Rhine countries th a t the movement draws its strength ; and Luxembourg is wholly appropriate as a tem porary home, even though we may hold th a t the Saar was at once the obvious and politically much the most useful choice th a t could have been made ; because the Schuman Plan is the way o f saving the situation over the Saar which could otherwise so bedevil Franco-G erm an relations.

“We have n o t come here,” declared M. Monnet, President o f the High Authority, when he inaugurated the headquarters o f the European I ro n and Steel Community at Luxembourg, “ as Frenchm en or as Germans, but as Europeans.” The words still express a desire rath e r than a reality. But those whose enthusiasm for the ideal o f European unity has been tempered by th e variety and complexity o f its problem s tend to overlook th a t historical developments such as we now experience, long regarded as utopian, must take their tim e and cannot be expected to be born perfect. The “ dreamers” and “ theoreticians” o f European unity will yet prove to have been the greatest realists, for the last seven years alone have brought about advances upon th a t road towards European unity

The first task in making the Plan work will be the abolition by the six partners o f custom rights concerning coal and steel. At present these custom barriers are o f little importance because o f the general steel shortage. More im portant still is the stabilization o f prices. Belgian coal export prices for instance are higher, while steel prices are lower th an the average. A part from economic considerations, the adm in istration o f the Schuman P lan is now employing a staff o f many more than the originally planned five hundred persons, with a large translating departm ent fo r four languages, is in danger o f paralysing o r a t least slowing down decisions.

But it is in the political field more than in any o th e r that the success or failure o f the Plan will be determ ined. Its actual working will demonstrate whether o r not FrancoGerm an collaboration is capable o f further development. But a solution o f the Saar question has now been tied to the