TH E T A B L E T , December 20th, 1952.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 200, No. 5874

LONDON, DECEMBER 20th, 1952

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

CHRISTMAS AND MARSHAL TITO The Christian Family and the Marxist Teachers

THE SHEPHERDS AT THE CRIB This Night in Arcady. By Mgr. R . A . Knox THE WISE MEN FROM THE EAST Who Were They? By J . C. Marsh Edwards

HEADS AND TAILS A Story o f Leo the Tenth. By J . D . Utley ENGLISH CHRISTMAS SONGS Some Examples from the Middle Ages. By Gordon Albion

CANDLE IN THE WINDOW Verses for Christmas, with a Drawing by Thomas Derrick

COMPETITIONS FOR CHRISTMAS A General Test, a Latin Crossword, and Nine Special Chess Problems

THREE CONFERENCES F ROM three im portant meetings—those o f the Commonwealth Conference and the O .E .E .C ., and the Labour P arty ’s meetings a t Brown’s Hotel—the same broad general conclusion emerges : a realization th a t the lim its within which politics can increase, direct, o r even deflect economic forces are strictly lim ited, and th a t the great business o f intelligent statesm anship must be first to safeguard the springs and sources o f hum an energy and then to encourage the resulting activity to take constructive and useful instead of wasteful and p redatory forms.

whereas twenty-five years ago men said with satisfaction th a t the crown as an institution was the unifying apex which brought together different Governments in an ultim ate common allegiance, the new style shifts the emphasis away from the impersonal institution. It is now a person who holds sim ultaneously the regal office in a number o f different countries.

F o r th is is th e u ltim ate tru th behind the Commonwealth deliberations, whose achievement is no t the less im portant for being in a sense negative. The Ministers, all representing national economies faced with the same difficulty, rejected the idea th a t they could effectively help themselves and each o th e r by making a closed ring. They have realized that, whatever their particular ties, they all belong integrally to a larger society, and th a t sterling cannot make a British infantry square and defy th e dollar. On the contrary, the fu tu re of the Commonwealth countries is p a r t and parcel o f the future o f the Western world, and what all these countries must do is to try to grow o r manufacture more o f the things for which there is a steady and sure demand.

They all think th a t they can do this under the great governing political condition o f the present day, th a t there must be no sacrifice o f the present s tandards o f consumption, provided they can all obtain more capital for productive investment. I f such capital is forthcom ing, agriculture can be mechanized and more food grown, w ithout starving urban industry o f its replacem ent capital ; and for this reason alone the Commonwealth countries cannot afford to do anything to separate themselves from the dollar, which, in the form o f capital goods, agricultural machinery, fertilizers and the rest, they all so urgently need.

The changes made in the Queen’s title are no t considerable in themselves. She becomes specifically and individually Queen o f those members o f the Commonwealth who are not, as India is, a Republic. The word “D om in ion” drops out, as having the last vestigian traces o f dependence ; and,

I f this is not a m a tte r for grave concern, it is no m a tte r for congratulation. I t is another indication th a t the fissiparous tendency, the feeling th a t there must no t be any suggestion o f anything less than the fullest equality, needs still to be pandered to ; the determ ination th a t the Queen shall no t be the Queen o f the Commonwealth, which would be a real unifying title and office, but, separately, o f each particular part, so th a t th a t title can always be abrogated later, if it should ever seem attractive domestic politics fo r some party to do so. The Dilemma of S tatesm anship

The O.E.E.C. reports always give good advice to the European politicians which those politicians are only very partially free to act upon. In every country today the basic dilemma o f statesm anship is the same ; th a t the electorate, by th e 'b r e a th o f whose favour politicians live and exercise authority, is also the working population. Economically, what all these populations need to do is in almost every country the same. They need to produce more while consuming less. But, as voters, their great and natural tem p ta tion all the tim e is to transfer their support to anyone who will suggest to them th a t it is their right to consume more and to do less.

To these ultim ate term s o f the equation between consum ption and production alm ost everything in modern politics can be reduced ; fo r more education, earlier and better pensions, are not less increased consum ption than shorter hours. T hat is why, o f th e three Conferences, the most im portant was th a t o f the Labour Party. Here is a party which made its political fortune by promising, and fo r a tim e providing, increased consumption, which has now seen the