T H E T A B L E T , M a y U th , 1968

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 201, No. 5895

LONDON, MAY 16th, 1953

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1840

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

A TOUCHSTONE The Austrian Treaty as a Test o f Moscow’s Intentions CAN WE NEGOTIATE WITH MALENKOV ? The Indications that He may have Lost Effective Power. By Franz Borkenau

SPANISH LIBERALISM AND THE SPANISH CHURCH

A Reply to Salvador de Madariaga. By David L . Greenstock

AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS II. The Church at Grips with Current Problems. By Robert Speaight

MAY DAY IN ROME A Month before the Elections. From our Correspondent THE HIERARCHY IN THE NETHERLANDS

Commemorating a Hundred Years

A PISTOL FOR NEGUIB D EMOCRACY is desire. I t is a way o f bringing to the surface and into effective play peoples’ wishes and emotions rath e r than their knowledge and judgment. Its great danger is th a t the great majority in every country has little or no inform ation about o ther communities and Governments, and has in consequence always to learn by h a rd experience what it will no t accept at second hand. The wishful th inking o f electorates creates the constant tem p ta tion under which all public men labour, to deck themselves ou t with the phrases and emotions th a t they know correspond to what people desire and hope is true. There is then a constant tem ptation for ambitious perm anent officials to write the m em oranda th a t will suit their political chiefs a t any given tim e and cause them to be marked for promotion as sound and useful advisers. The independent official may be vindicated by events, ju s t as the independent politician may, so th a t th e warnings given in a period o f unpopularity become the basis o f a reputation and authority later on. But, broadly speaking, the large current o f affairs in countries ruled by their electorates is dom inated by the hope th a t the easy and cheap courses will justify themselves.

Anyone who invests money in their countries is giving hostages to fortune in a singularly im prudent fashion, since the doctrine is that whoever owns the soil is entitled to take anything on it when it pleases him. The Strain on Anglo-American Relations

One o f the great strains on Anglo-American relations has been the surprising indifference o f Washington to the rights o f property in Asia. Respect for such rights is fundamental if the standard o f living is to be raised in Africa and Asia by capital installations paid for by the savings o f the West. Up to now the typical American representatives in Asia and Africa could principally be relied upon to enter in to the feelings o f the local politicians when they talk about Colonialism and their determ ination to hold up their heads in the world as independent sovereign peoples. These aspirations need to be understood, but there are plenty o f people ready to fan them. The United States does no t need to take a lead there, and the change o f adm in istra tio n should be accom panied by a change o f emphasis.

The century in which there is so much mass democracy is much less harm onious and more quarrelsome than was ever anticipated by those who in the last century looked forward to the brotherhood o f man and believed th a t the ordinary m an everywhere would prove no t very political. They underestim ated what nationalism could do, and above all what a master passion is the resentm ent a t any implication o f inferior status. The humility which is the recognition of tru th remains among the rarer and specifically Christian virtues.

I f the Egyptians seem to us intensely unreasonable, it is largely because they have to prove themselves in their own eyes as good men as the Persians. I f the Persians could break an agreement and seize a property worth £300 million, the Egyptians must do the same. Encouraged by the im munity D r. Mossadeq has enjoyed, they are indifferent to the poverty th a t these courses necessarily bring with them when th e Governments o f poor peoples demonstrate to the world th a t they cannot be relied upon to keep agreements.

The United States, the chief provider o f capital fo r undeveloped countries, is in this great position, and able to invest so much, because in America's own development th e rights o f property have been so fully and carefully maintained, so th a t every American, planning to get ahead, has done so with the knowledge th a t whatever he could save would remain his, and th a t if he invested it he would enjoy the return. All the great and hopeful policies for Asia and Africa depend upon this feeling continuing, so th a t American a n d other investors will look on the undeveloped continents as the natural and proper field for their savings.

Mr. Dulles should have presented General Neguib not with a pistol, but with a pen, to rem ind him o f agreements, and their basic im portance for the future o f mankind.

The more General Neguib ta lks about “ warm b lood flowing,” the more impossible he makes it fo r Britain to withdraw, even by stages, from the Canal, and the more valueless do all the concessions made over the Sudan appear. Those concessions were made in the hope o f establishing such a good atm osphere between Britain and Egypt as to perm it th e future