T H E T A B L E T , Ja n u a r y 31st, 1953.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA D E I , PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 2 0 1 , N o . 5 8 8 0

FOUNDED IN 1840

L O N D O N , JANUARY 31 s t , 1953

N IN EPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

IMITATIVE NATIONALISM The Men who Forget the Larger Society

SOCIALISM IN ASIA

The New International established in Rangoon. By Denzil McNeelance

FRANCE AND THE EUROPEAN ARMY

The Views of General Weygand WHO ARE SOUTH AFRICANS ? The Changed View of English Liberals. By Christopher Hollis

THE CHURCH IN SOUTH AMERICA

I I : Missionary Lands. By John Tracy Ellis

THE EUCHARISTIC FAST

By Canon E . J . Mahoney

THE ENGLISH SUNDAY

By B . C. L . Keelan

THE PATTERN OF PERSECUTION The Concluding Part o f the Letter of the Yugoslav Bishops to Marshal Tito

“ STALLING IN EUROPE ” ? P RESIDENT E ISEN HOW ER ’S Secretary o f State, a week before leaving for Europe, has expressed his disappointment a t the delays in the ratification o f the trea ty for a European Defence Community, a project which, he said, “ now seems to be somewhat stalled.” We p r in t th is week an account o f General Weygand’s views on the project, because they reflect a widespread and natural European attitude, th a t the only way to proceed is by fully accepting the nations as they exist, as the units out o f which European Union is to be made. This is much less than the Federalists desire, but it can be sufficient for the essential purposes fo r which greater unity is imperative.

French are afraid th a t under such arrangem ents their stores o f scrap will be entirely bought up by their financially stronger colleagues, and it is hard to see how this will n o t happen and hard to see how M. M onnet's drastic plans will be carried through w ithout a good deal o f industrial unrest. The first months o f the common market will certainly be difficult ones, but, if the authority shows sufficient strength to survive them, it will find itself the master o f enormous industrial power, and also the possessor o f gigantic prestige as the first European authority th a t has really succeeded in achieving something. Small Prospect of Ratification

Americans have a tendency to scold Europeans fo r failing to achieve greater unity in Western Europe. But when Mr. Foster Dulles suggests th a t the Americans would no t have put so much o f their post-w ar investment in to Europe if they had no t believed they were investing in a p a r t o f the world where unity would bring strength, it is highly relevant th a t he goes on to say th a t, if the United States needs to do some re-thinking about its European policy, it will do so in a spirit o f enlightened self-interest. The United States is itself a nation, and a nation-State, with a flag and a patriotism , which the imm igrants from Europe absorb, and are expected to absorb. Western Europe, too, consists o f nation-States, some o f them many centuries old, and in recent centuries a national patriotism has been widely inculcated as an u ltim ate value, fo r which men m ust be ready to fight and to die, and which should take precedence o f everything else in the allegiance o f their hearts.

The common m a rket for coal comes into existence among the six Schuman countries on F ebruary 10th, and fo r steel on April 10th. There is every indication th a t M. Monnet is determ ined to push them through with a Robespierrean ruthlessness, convinced th a t if things are no t carried through thus, they will n o t be carried through a t all. Customs duties, restrictions on im ports and exports, and dual prices are to be elim inated a t once. Coal allocations will remain only until M arch 31st. Then there will be a free m a rket fo r all. The

But under present conditions th e E .D .C . T reaty has little chance o f being ratified. A long-drawn debate is likely in the French N ational Assembly, where a number o f com missions has been set up to deal with the so-called additional clauses which, in M. Mayer’s words, are to “ interpret, complete, explain and if necessary also correct” the treaty, and to pacify its opponents. In Germany, D r. Adenauer is firmly resolved to ratify the two treaties as they are a t present. He is no t opposed to a revision o f “ secondary points,” but he is against the French proposal to jo in the fu tu re o f the Saar to the ratification o f the European and G erm an treaties— and rightly so, for they did, after all, receive th e signatures o f all the=six partners. The G erm an Chancellor made it clear, in rejecting the objections o f the opposition parties and the G erm an and French attem p ts to delay th e E .D .C . in the hope th a t a bargain m ight be concluded between E ast and West, th a t it is no t primarily a political o r constitutional problem a t all which the West is required to settle.

W ithout the treaties Europe will continue in precisely th a t uncertainty and unrest which the Soviet Union desires. Europe owes her preservation from “ ho t w ar” to the superiority o f American atom ic weapons, bu t th is may be only a tem porary advantage, and the rearm ament o f th e Soviet Zone and o f the satèllite States affords no justification for any light-hearted optim ism in Germany and France. I t may