THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW VOL. 201, No. 5876 PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA LONDON, JANUARY 3rd, 1953 FOUNDED IN 1840 NINEPENCE PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

NEW YEAR PROSPECTS A Fateful Year, and the Abiding Principles o f Recovery

A WORLD IN DISORDER Fruits of a Moral Abdication. By Douglas Jerrold

“ ORIENT ALES ECCLESIAS ” An Encyclical Letter on the Persecuted Eastern Church MARSHAL TITO AND THE HOLY SEE

II. Why Archbishop Stepinac was Arrested

A “ PEOPLE’S ” CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS WITHOUT CHRIST

How Eastern Germany Celebrated

Post-Christian Christmas Cards

AN INDIAN CARDINAL

The Archbishop o f Bombay

GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS

By D . J . B . Hawkins

“ LIFT UP YOUR HEADS ” The Official English Text of the Holy Father’s Christmas Eve Allocution

AFTER M. PINAY

T HE crisis which overthrew M. Pinay ju s t before Christmas, after ten months o f steady and largely successful government, reverted once more to the silly pattern o f the last legislature. The MRP this tim e assumed the responsibility for precipitating th e crisis, which was much more ardently desired by the Communists, Socialists and RPF th an by them. The sorry affair took place on a m a tte r o f parliam entary tactics. The Cabinet had put down the question of confidence on three votes, one o f which concerned the reform o f the Social Security scheme, in which the MRP was particularly interested. But even a t the last minute some sort o f accommodation might have been possible had no t M. Pinay, losing patience a t the war o f nerves which the Assembly had been waging on him for weeks, decided to end the struggle.

The unfortunate result is th a t the MRP have im itated the irresponsible tactics o f the Communists in 1947, and the Socialists from 1949 to 1951. The parliam entary group, acting against the exhortations o f its representatives in the Cabinet and o f such ex-M inisters as M. Bidault, decided by thirty-three votes to twenty, with three abstentions, to “ ab sta in” from voting on the Government’s issue o f confidence on its Social Security policy. This irresponsibility meant that, though the M R P Cabinet Ministers were committed to M. Pinay’s policy, and the experienced leaders o f the Party supported it, the rank and file members could leave the form er w ithout support in the Assembly and bind the la tte r to a course which they disapproved.

M. Pinay pointed ou t wearily th a t the whole question o f the national Social Security budget was to be debated by January 1st, and th a t his policy o f stabilizing prices meant th a t each tim e th a t a reduction o f 1 per cent was achieved in prices it was like increasing family allowances by 3 per cent. Nonetheless, M. Moisan, a comparatively unknown member o f the MRP, somewhat gauchely expressed the view o f his fellows—and the Premier announced th a t he would not trouble the Assembly to vote on a foregone conclusion, now th a t an essential p a r t o f his majority was undependable. I t was the kill, so long awaited by the Socialists, Communists and RPF, in the very week after the Paris electorate, by returning the dissident Gaullist, M. Pierre Coirre, with a massive majority over the Opposition Parties, had given a decisive expression o f opinion on the “Pinay experim ent.”

The usual “ consultations” have taken place between the President of the Republic and the various Party chiefs. The Socialists and Communists had no chance o f success ; but, as le Figaro noted, it was somewhat stupefying to the newspapermen assembled a t the President’s residence to see M. Duclos arrive for “ consultation” on the crisis, when he personally and four o f his leading parliam entary colleagues may have their parliam entary immunity lifted on grounds of anti-national activities. "This seemed to be carrying parliamentary courtesy somewhat beyond the lim its o f commonsense. The Gaullist leader, M. Jacques Soustelle, had no hopes o f receiving the co-operation o f the o ther Parties, especially as he made it clear th a t his desire for a “b ro ad ” national fron t stopped short o f including the “dissidents” whose defection had allowed M. Pinay’s investiture last M arch and whose fidelity had check-mated the RPF-Com munist-Socialist wrecking tactics for ten months.

Viet-minh’s Fifth Column

I t is beginning to be realized in th e United States th a t the French struggle in Indo-C hina is n o t a colonial war bu t p a r t o f the wider policy o f Communist expansion in the F a r East. But there is far too little recognition as yet, both in America and in Europe, o f the p a r t played by the French Communists and the CGT in sustaining the Viet-minh rebels. T h a t these organizations are in direct contact with Ho Chi M inh has been confirmed in Le Monde by the Saigon correspondent o f the Associated Press, M. Max Clos, who gave this account o f a French soldier, Pierre G . . . ., taken prisoner in In do -C h in a :

“The prisoners in his camp had to complete questionnaires on their arrival, and, ab o u t four weeks later, were called up for in terrogation. In th e meantime, the question­