THE TABLET, September 27th, 1952.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 200, No. 5862

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 27th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1840

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

MORECAMBE AND SCARBOROUGH

The Increasing Unreality of Party Politics BRITAIN AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Impressions of the Consultative Assembly. By a Correspondent in Strasbourg

BEFORE THE ALL-SOVIET CONGRESS

Self-Criticism in Russia. By Victor S . Frank

THE CATHOLICS OF DENMARK

Meeting the Bishop. By Derek Patmore

ILLUMINATING MUNICH

By R. G. D . Laffan

JEROME SAVONAROLA The Fifth Centenary of His Birth. By Illtud Evans, O .P . A PROSPECT OF FLOWERS LOOKING AT SWITZERLAND

By J . Lewis May

By Reginald Langford

FILMS AT VENICE

By J . A. V. Burke

PHILOSOPHERS AT GALLARATE

By F. C. Copleston, S .J .

A “LITTLE FEDERATION” T HREE different schools of thought in the Six Countries have been pressing ahead at Strasbourg with “Little Federalism.” There are such Latins as M. Spaak and M. Schuman (if Latins they be), who would rather have acted with Britain but who are now acting without her, in despair that she would ever do anything. Such statesmen welcome Mr. Eden’s proposals and hope that something will come of the association of Britain with the special authorities. Then there are the Germans, who want British association to be as little as possible, confident that, without the British, Germany will easily be able to dominate Europe and to settle with the United States alone the moment when she can strike, for the recovery of her Eastern territories. Then there are the Italian Christian Democrats, whose motives for opposing Britain are not so clear. They are alleged to have the somewhat futile hope that, in a small Federation, they would be able to hold the balance between France and Germany. One of their motives is certainly the belief that Britain is an antiCatholic Power, just as M. Guy Mollet supports Britain in the belief that, though you cannot trust Britain in anything else, you can at least trust her to be anti-Catholic. In this atmosphere it was a pity that Mr. Eden was not able to accept an invitation to luncheon with Cardinal Tisserant at Strasbourg. They were only able to meet in the most brief and perfunctory way. The Cardinal was taking the closest interest in the proceedings : we print on another page an account of his broadcast from Radio Strasbourg. But Mr. Eden has left an impression that he is more ready to be convivial with Marshal Tito than with the Dean of the Sacred College.

It seems certain that out of the deliberations of the Committees there will emerge some sort of association of British observers with the specialized authorities on somewhat illdefined terms. I t will be for the British observers themselves to see whether they can make anything of their position or not.

can money which are being spent on the cause of “Little Federalism.” At the European Youth Conference at Florence last week, M. Spaak delivered by letter a blunt demand that all educational work must be wound up and that all money in the future must be spent on direct work for federalism and within the Six Countries. The Youth, to their credit, alike federalist and non-federalist, made it clear that they were in no mood to accept such dictation, but it is yet to be seen how far Mr. Eden’s speech has left M. Spaak permanently in a less dictatorial mood. What Sort of Federalism ?

It looks probable now that there will be a Little Federation. But that will be not the end but the beginning of problems. The argument whether there should be a Federation has too much obscured the much more important argument what sort of Federation there shall be. Every argument in a committee makes it clearer how radically different on this point are French and German ideas. The French are static and defeatist ; they want federation as a means of avoiding war and another invasion of France. The Germans are dynamic and adventurous ; it seems that for some of them at least the new Europe is something to be used when the time comes for pressing claims in East and Central Europe which may not be greatly different from those of Hitler—though naturally they still pay lip-service to the hope that these things will be done without war. As a result, while the Germans are more determined than other Europeans to exclude Britain from interference in European affairs, they are more interested than other Europeans in economic co-operation with the sterling area. They look to the sterling area to supply them with raw materials and to make possible for them a policy of independence of America, if at some future time they should want that independence. Mr. Eden in Vienna

According to every report the State Department is behaving through all this with the utmost correctitude. On the other hand, there are certainly considerable sums of private Ameri

Both Mr. Eden's presence in Vienna last week and Signor de Gasperi’s visit to Bonn were more than diplomatic episodes. They underlined the special significance which these two cities