T H E T A B L E T . November 26 * , 1962.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, No. 5869

LONDON, NOVEMBER 15th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

CONVALESCENCE AND INDEPENDENCE

The Coming Phase in International Policy

THE LIBERAL DILEMMA

The Rival Claims o f Freedom and Security in America. By Douglas Jerrold

BALDWIN AND BEVIN Biographies o f Two Representative Englishmen

HISTORY IN REVERSE

English Exiles in Poland

A LETTER FROM PARIS

M . Pinay’s Tenacity

THE MAURIAC COUNTRY

The Setting o f the Novels. By Tudor Edwards

THE HEALTH CHARGES

By Geoffrey Simon

THE C.D.U. HOLDS ITS OWN M R. CHURCHILL, speaking a t the Mansion House, uttered a categorical warning th a t it would be dishonourable to seek easement in K orea by sending back prisoners to the cold cruelties o f Communist Governments. He was speaking within a few hours o f Mr. Vishinsky who, a t the United N ations, continues to make such dishonour a sine qua non. But Mr. Churchill seemed to have in mind the new situ ation created by Mr. Eisenhower’s prom ise to go to Korea, the popularity o f th a t prom ise in gaining votes, and th e extrem e improbability th a t such a journey will achieve anything. I t was indeed one o f the many pieces o f electioneering which the event suggests could have been dispensed with. The only sound policy for the Western world is to continue doggedly and, if need be, indefinitely with the K orean War, no t to get rattled o r im patient. But American opinion is very understandably impatient, since the bulk o f the casualties are American, and there a re two schools o f thought, the few who w ant negotiations and wanting them choose to believe they can have them. Another school who want the President-elect to go to Korea, expect him to draw blank, bu t then expect public opinion to dem and and approve an extension o f the war. The argument is th a t two atom ic bombs ended the Japanese war overnight, after th ree and a half years, and saved far more lives th an they lo s t and American lives, which are, it is added, the first responsibility o f the American Government. The duty o f thinking more about specifically American interests was one o f the strongest cards in the Republican hand.

indicate th a t D r. Adenauer’s prestige even before the ratificatio n o f the Bonn treaties—and half a year before general elections in Western Germany—is greatly impaired. The Christian Democrats have lost little more th an one per cent, and the small gains made by the Social Democrats are widely believed to be a t the expense o f the Communists who have now practically disappeared from the political scene in the Rhineland. The Christian Democrats have had a difficult tim e in Rhineland-W estphalia and Rhineland-Pfalz because they had to encounter the combined a t tack o f the SPD and the Liberals o f the FD P on their school policy as well as the custom ary Socialist negation o f the Governm ent’s home and foreign policy. They lo s t Essen, bu t kept their lead in Cologne and Düsseldorf. Lower Saxony is the problem Land because o f the politically displaced members o f the dissolved neo-Nazi Reichspartei and th e uncertain element o f the refugees who constitute nearly th irty per cent o f the population. But there the effect o f a united Government coalition now in opposition has prevented a victory o f the extremists. Nevertheless, the election by the Refugee Party of H err Wilhelm Schepmann, the last leader o f the form er S.A., is disquietening. Eisenhower in Germany

M r. Churchill was em phatic in his speech about the m ilitary advantage which Moscow derives from keeping the K o rean war going, to sap American strength while the lesser resources o f Britain and F rance suffer a sim ilar a ttr itio n in Malaya and Indo-China. But a t the same tim e he repeated what he has said before about the danger o f war having receded. I f there are only 22,000 men in the Home G uard, it is n o t surprising as a practical deduction.

H e also said th a t no useful purpose is served by looking a t the Germans in the light o f the last war and their past rulers, instead o f in the light o f the present situ ation and their present government. The Third Reich cannot be regarded as a foreign conquest o f the G erm an people. I t was something th a t came ou t o f them , and because it ended in defeat, there is no ground fo r thinking something all too sim ilar is not potentially there. But a great deal else is potentially there, which it must be ou r policy to elicit, to recognize and to fortify.

The results so far received o f the local elections held last Sunday in three im portan t West-German Länder do no t

Mr. Eisenhower’s election may have a stabilizing effect on the political temper o f the Federal Republic. The Rheinische M erkur wrote th a t “ the growing unity o f the A tlantic community under a man like Eisenhower could give strength and security to all o f us,” and this paper welcomed the prospect o f his taking up the political offensive in the cold war, and term inating “ the peculiar support o f European Marxists and Left-W ing Intellectuals” by giving greater recognition to the Christian elements in Europe. There is some concern in G erm an papers about the President-elect’s ability to steer clear o f the extremists on the Republican side who might regard the Pacific as more im portant than Europe. Some Germans would probably rejoice more at an appointm ent o f the former American High Commissioner, Mr. McCloy, as the next Secretary o f Defence th an a t the prospect o f Mr. John Foster Dulles as the next Secretary of State. But those in Western Germany who are anxious fo r a new and better era o f F ranco-G e rm an relations welcome a new President, who will no t rate the past which still inspires the jealousies and delays over the ratification o f the EDC treaty higher-than the future; th a t is, in the Prime M inister’s words on Monday, “ th e foundations upon which the salvation o f all mankind from war and tyranny in this period depend.”