THE TABLET, Augtat 9th, 1962.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 200, No. 5855

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

LONDON, AUGUST 9th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1840

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE DAWNING DOUBT Foreign and Imperial Policy and Economic Survival DEMOCRACY AND THE PARTY SYSTEM Thoughts on the American Election. By Douglas Jerrold

THE CHURCH IN SWEDEN The New Mission of the English Passionist Fathers MUSIC IN AFRICA AN UNEASY VICTORIAN

By Philip Gbeho

By Sir Arnold Lunn

PADRE PIO DA PIETRELCINA The Significance of a Recent Judgment of the Holy Office SISTER RIFQA AR-RAYES AT THE TATE GALLERY

By Donald Attwater

By David Sylvester

SCALING DOWN

M R. EDEN had very solid reasons to give the House of Commons for the Government’s decision to ratify the Bonn agreements. The general arguments were dear, and the main point on which the Opposition could fasten was an economic one : we accept a responsibility next year to pay for our troops in Germany, a responsibility which may add as much as £200 millions annually to the sums we must find in dollars and gold. While Mr. Eden made it plain that we cannot carry a greater balance-of-payments burden, he had to leave it vague how we should avoid doing so, and that, he said, “ is one of the most stubborn difficulties of the whole business.”

The Prime Minister’s argument was that, by the decline of the purchasing power o f the pound, the £4,700 million estimate will become £5,400 million, and th a t we have in fact in three years spent a sum not far short of the to ta l originally proposed. But “ our resources are not expanding a t the rate we need to enable us to recover, in any period th a t can be foreseen, the position we held before the war” ; and we are receiving from the United States this year about £175 million —less than half the sums the late Government used to receive from that source every year. I t was obviously with great distaste that Mr. Churchill had reached the decisions he has, and had braced himself to announce to the world this slowing down o f the British defence work, and a slower intake of National Service men, because there are not the reservist NCO’s to train them ; he had even to announce the sale of certain armaments, as they come into production, to buyers abroad, where there is a good market.

Strong as was Mr. Churchill’s language in conclusion about the very disquieting facts we have to face, declaring himself “ to rtu red” by the spectacle of the British Empire wondering how it can pay its monthly bills, Mr. Bevan spoke almost as sombrely about the most ominous situation confronting a manufacturing country like ours. He made the very constructive proposal for a Minister to be in charge of long-term economic policy, not merely of the balance-of-payments today. I f one o f the leading members of the Ministry had this special responsibility it would help in the general process of public education. Today, from very different preoccupations, the politicians and the Treasury heads have to concentrate on the problems of today. I t is the politician’s interest and the civil servant’s duty, but often what is the least disadvantageous short-term policy is of a kind to prevent the development of long-term policies. The Drain on the Reserves

The public has found a certain amount of difficulty in interpreting the July gold reserve figures. The reserves o f the sterling area have risen during the month by $31 million. But of course we received $24 million defence aid and $37 million under the Katz-Gaitskell Agreement. So the verdict on those figures is th a t the situation is a great deal better than it was but that we are still not quite paying our way— still less doing anything to build up our reserves to a satisfactory figure. How far the improvement is due to a real improvement in volume of exports, how far to a fortuitous improvement in terms of trade is another question. But the real nigger in the woodpile is the deficit on E.P.U. which has to be settled in August and which is certain to be considerable. I t is true th a t this is a season of the year when balances with the Continent are always bad, but it has yet to be seen whether the policy of import cuts towards Continental countries will prove to have been a wise one. To cut imports from a country with whom we are permanently in deficit is one thing, to cut them from countries with whom as often as not we have a favourable balance is quite another. Inevitably the other country cuts back, and, since our exports are so largely luxuries, our imports so largely necessities, we are apt to lose out of such an exchange. Dangerous Days in Persia

The same Persian Senate which has twice recently demonstrated its opposition to D r. Mossadeq has now, with one dissenting voice, expressed its confidence in him. But Majlis and Senate, like Shah and Army, no longer constitute the real authority in Persia. With a population of which 80 per cent is illiterate, political power is in the hands of those who are least representative. The only political party, according to western standards, is the Communist Tudeh, which is now waiting in the background to exploit the inevitable deterioration o f the financial and economic situation for its own ends and those of the Kremlin.

D r. Mossadeq’s Nationalist F ront has neither a majority