TEE TABLET, August 2nd, 1968.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, No. 5854

LONDON, AUGUST 2nd, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

ISLAM AND THE WORLD The Stirrings o f the Moslem Countries BRITAIN, EGYPT AND THE SUDAN Implications o f the Egyptian Claim. By Charles P . Brown

ON ENGLISH MARRIAGE The Issue Before the Royal Commission DR. HEWLETT JOHNSON IN CHINA His Meeting with Catholic Missionaries. By Thomas J . Bauer

RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE The Spirit o f the Old South. By Christopher Hollis

TO THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA The Full Text o f the Apostolic Letter o f Pope Pius XII

PLATO’S RECIPE

T H ERE is a most reassuring contrast between all the exaggerations and the ballyhoo and emotional advertising which a ttend American Party Conventions and the sobriety and quality o f the u ltim ate choice which each party has made. O f General Eisenhower it can be said th a t he was chosen on character, and fo r basically the same reasons for which General Marshall selected him fo r th e supreme command over a mixed force, where one great essential was th a t everyone should have confidence in the fairness o f the final judge between them. So much o f the work in the modern Presidency is th a t o f adjudicating between priorities, and between departm ents and individuals, in the light o f a few overriding principles.

H isto ry has many examples o f insincere protestations o f Nolo Episcopari, and if the view be taken th a t such p ro testations from G overnor Stevenson and General Eisenhower were merely political manoeuvres they are n o t o f great interest. But there seems to be little doubt th a t in both cases they were entirely sincere— that, a lthough on both sides there was a number o f ambitious politicians who were anxious to be President, and a lthough those politicians had taken great pains to capture the party machines, yet the Conventions o f both parties thought th a t their chance o f victory lay in selecting a m an who had taken no pains to court the machine, who had made no promises, and who only accepted the candidacy reluctantly and because he was convinced th a t an overwhelming body o f public opinion dem anded th a t he should do so.

I f this be true, it is o f great im portance. I t shows th a t public opinion will n o t to lerate—or a t th e least th a t the most shrewd judges o f public opinion th ink th a t it will no t to le rate for the Presidency—someone who is merely a machine politician. I t shows also th a t the Presidency is now so unremittingly burdensome a jo b th a t no m an o f any sensitivity wishes for it merely for fun. Such ambitions are fo r the ox-skinned. The Forrestal Diaries show how the Presidency was as distasteful to Mr. T rum an as to the candidates for his succession, and though, to be sure, Forrestal’s Diaries are no t entirely trustw orthy documents, there is no reason to th in k th a t they are in e r ro r on th a t point.

I t is interesting to contrast the reluctance o f men o f first ability to become P resident today w ith the alm ost schoolboy eagerness with which such men as Theodore Roosevelt and

Woodrow W ilson forw arded their own ambitions. The explanation obviously is th a t the immersion o f the United States in to world politics and the growth o f the Washington bureaucracy has made the responsibilities o f the Presidency, as Mr. T rum an complained, a lm ost intolerable. P la to said th a t no man should be allowed to accept political office unless he did no t wish for it, and, if there is sufficient public spirit in America for her to continue to find men o f first ability and integrity who will a t a public call sacrifice their leisure, all will be well. If, as in some other countries, men o f sensitivity refuse to run fo r great public office, the result will clearly be disastrous. But so common is the unthinking assum ption o f a certain type o f newspaper th a t no one takes any p a r t in public life except from an insane desire to obtain office for himself th a t it will be a most valuable lesson for Americans—and not for Americans alone—to be shown the spectacle o f the greatest political post in the world in contest between two distinguished men niether o f whom has on personal grounds any wish whatsoever to obtain it. The Two Debates

There is a great danger th a t we shall slip in to the habit of th inking ou r economic problem s and the in te rnational problem to be quite unconnected with one another. They are dangerously connected. I f the immediate dangers o f war in Western Europe are considerably less th an they were, no one can doubt th a t one o f the main reasons why i t is true is th a t the Russians are holding their hand because they are persuaded th a t the West, including Britain, is in earnest over rearm ament. N o one can be confident th a t a reduction in British rearm am ent plans will n o t bring a deterioration in the in te rnational situation. Nor, if we are to reduce our p ro gramme can we reasonably expect to have large influence over American policy towards G erm an rearm ament.

M a jo r Weinstein, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, prophecies th e failure o f the European Defence Community, but the emergence in its place o f direct German-American “ in tegration” and alliance. I t may be th a t he is speaking as yet too soon, but there is no doubt th a t there is opinion in America which thinks the Germans by far the most com petent o f all Europeans, and believes th a t General Eisenhower has given it as his judgm ent th a t Europe is indefensible w ithout