THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 201, No. 5892

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

LONDON, APRIL 25th, 1953

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

SPONSORED TELEVISION The Need for a Clarification of Government Policy

OVER POPULATION OR NOT ? II. The Double-Edged Weapon. By Audrey Donnithorne

THE COMING ELECTION IN ITALY The Preliminary Rounds. From Our Special Correspondent “THE LIVING-ROOM” BOSSUET TO VOLTAIRE The Theme and the Production at Wyndham’s Theatre The European Mind. By A . Dru

SPRING BOOKS SUPPLEMENT Reviews by Professor David Knowles, H. D. Hanshell, Derek Stanford, Yvonne ffrench, Thomas Gilby, Rosemary Hughes, Lancelot C. Sheppard, J. Austin McCawley, Lieut.-General H. G. Martin, A. C. F. Beales, D. McNeelance, Douglas Woodruff, A. J. Brooker, A. H. N. Green-Armytage, R. E. Havard, Richard Butcher and E. W. Martin

TESTING INTENTIONS L AST week’s speeches by President Eisenhower and Mr. Foster Dulles gave an outline o f a policy th a t could be effective in continuing the “ cold war,” if necessary, o r in ending it if the Soviet Union had the will. The President said to the Russians, in effect : We will meet you half way if you really desire an end o f the present tensions. And i t is very easy fo r you to prove your good faith— in Austria and Germany, in K orea, Indo-C h ina and Malaya ; in Eastern Europe ; in the re tu rn o f prisoners o f war still in Russia, in a number o f ways th a t would tell the world th a t you mean what you say. We shall welcome a reduction o f arm aments and are ready to devote a substantial percentage o f any savings achieved to a fund for world aid and reconstruction. In the meantime, as long as the th rea t persists, we are resolved to be arm ed and in readiness. The result o f such statem ents is twofold. I t serves bo th as a challenge to the leaders in the Kremlin and to those elements in Europe who, under Mr. Bevan’s le ad ,k now no t “how to distinguish between capitalism and Communism.” All th a t can be said in public has now been said, and there is no need for great pronouncements o r dram atic meetings between the Heads o f State. I t is for the diplom atists to explore quietly what is really behind th e strange news from Moscow.

Russia a t first accepted, then withdrew on the ground th a t its motive was American economic imperialism ; the Soviet bloc Council for M u tual Economic Aid was form ed instead. There is undoubtedly a school o f thought in Moscow th a t is listening with interest to what President Eisenhower is saying now. The Chinese and Burma

President Eisenhower did no t m ention the dispute over the rightful Government o f China, and he was wise to remember th a t, however useful the alliance between the Chinese Communists and th e Soviet U n ion, th e interests o f these two Power blocs are n o t necessarily th e same. Western policy in the F a r East must be to encourage the second thoughts now clearly entertained in Peking about their dependence fo r arm s on an uncertain au tho rity in Moscow. This is as yet a m a tte r for speculation only, bu t Mr. Chou En-lai’s presence in the Soviet capital during Stalin’s funeral, and when the signs o f differences between the new leaders began to appear, may have had much to do with the present hopeful signs in Korea.

President Eisenhower’s p lan is no t new ; i t was tried in 1951, and came to nothing. T hat, however, was when Stalin was alive ; now th a t Stalin is dead the same response cannot be assumed. In 1946 the American Government offered a ? 1,000m. loan to the Soviet Government for reconstruction and development if they would agree to discuss freedom of navigation on the D anube and a settlem ent o f their LendLease account o f $ 11,000m. The Russians refused these conditions and the Americans withdrew their offer o f a loan on the ground th a t they would never get it past Congress unless the conditions were fulfilled. Stalin then announced th a t Russia by her own efforts, in a series o f Five Y ear Plans, would build an industry which would rival th a t o f the United States. There is reason to believe, however, th a t there have always been some in th e Soviet Government who regretted th a t the American loan offer was never accepted. When the American Government offered the Marshal Plan in 1947,

There could, o f course, be no peace in the F a r East if the Communist wars were to be replaced by the prom o tio n of civil war in China, encouraged by the United States. T hat is also a reason why the threatening break between Burma and the West must be prevented. The Burmese Government has alleged th a t the Chinese N a tionalist tro ops on its n o r th eastern frontier are being supplied with American arm s with 1951-52 markings. The geography o f th a t area makes it clearly impossible for such arm s to reach the Chinese n a t io n alists either from American sources o r from Form osa. In fact, the only possible approach is from the Chinese border, and it may well be th a t these supplies were captured in Korea and then sold to some o f the Chinese nationalist leaders in Burma, who thus, consciously o r unconsciously, play in to the hands o f the Chinese Communists. Recently three Germ an deserters from the French Foreign Legion in In d o c h i n a were killed in an action between Burmese troops and Chinese nationalists, and it is likely th a t men such as these are engaged in the arm s trade.