T U E T A B L E T , M a y 23rd, 1963

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 201, No. 5896

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, MAY 23rd, 1953

NINEPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

FROM THE FIRST WHITSUNTIDE The Extraordinary Vitality o f the Church through History GERMANY AND EUROPEAN FEDERATION The Problem o f the Recent Session at Strasbourg. By Christopher Hollis, M .P .

SAINT BERNARD: MONK AND APOSTLE Reflections in his Eighth Centenary Year. By Thomas Merton

THE CARDINAL OF BOLOGNA Relations with the Tramway Men and Other Communists

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE After Five Hundred Years. By R. G. D . Laffan

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DR. ADENAUER’S OPTIMISM D R . ADENAUER, who came from S trasbourg and Paris to L ondon last week, showed himself optim istic about the progress in European unification accomplished by the six foreign ministers. He said th a t the so-called “ Little Europe” was n o t an exclusive association, b u t the nucleus of European in tegration with which the activities o f other States may and should become associated. There seemed to be an approxim a tion to a m ore loose type o f federation in his m ind, which he explained on the example o f the relationship between Britain and the Commonwealth and the European community and o f the irrevocable British military commitments on the continent. I t is, a t any rate, encouraging to learn o f the recommendation adopted by a great majority by th e Consultative Assembly on May 11th, on the basis o f which the Governments o f the six countries are requested quickly to reach a decision on th e d raft o f a political community. L ittle Europe is a beginning, n o t an end.

There is no Austrian desire whatsoever for a new Anschluss. I f the Germans remember 1945, the Austrians have no t forgotten 1938, and the bitter lessons o f both events. The resulting estrangem ent was an unnatural factor in post-w ar Europe, and if the wounds o f the past cannot be healed so quickly, the present need fo r close economic and cultural relations should bring the two countries together despite the surviving resentm ents on both sides. The manner in which H itler dealt with Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland remains a perm anent warning how no t to a t tem p t a solution o f th e Germ an and European problem . But it will n o t be until the share o f responsibility in th a t p a r t o f history is fully recognized in Austria and in Germany th a t “ the Chinese wall,” as D r . G ruber called it, can be really removed. The Campaigns Open in Germany

The possibilities o f the visit which Sir W inston Churchill is expected to make to Germany this summer were discussed. H e has a g reat reputation there, and i t would doubtlessly help to complete the present G erm an Governm ent’s foreign political record i f such a visit could take place before the elections. The present atm osphere o f an Anglo-German understanding must not, however, be allowed to continue a t the expense o f F rance, where the echo o f Sir W inston’s speech still resounds. There are elements in Germany, particularly in th e Rhineland, which hope th a t this speech may force the F rench to closer political and m ilitary collaboratio n in Europe, b u t they fear th a t the opposite may happen, confirming the anti-Europeans in France, because they suspect th a t, as the editor o f th e Rheinische Merkur p u t it la s t week, “B rita in plays its European cards only as a counterpoise to the crisis in the F a r East and th e British interests involved there.” There is plenty o f need fo r a much more explicit in te rp re ta t ion to the Germans o f what British commitments in E u ro pe mean.

F o r the first tim e since 1945 an Austrian statesm an has visited Bonn, to begin a new phase in Austro-G e rm an relations, unnaturally severed after the Germ an occupation o f Austria, and in the absence in either country o f full sovereignty to make norm al d ip lom atic representation possible. But now th e A ustrian Ambassador in Paris, D r. Heinrich Schmid, has been appointed to head what is still called an “Austrian Office” in Bonn' and D r. G ru b e r ’s visit also should benefit countries so near to one another in language and culture.

While the election campaign in Italy is nearing its end, in Germany the campaign is ju s t beginning, and, after the CDU Congress in Hamburg last month, the Socialists have ju s t held their own “Election Congress” a t F rankfurt. The programme which was issued there is an attem pt, as far as in te rnal social policy is concerned, to forget and disguise the old proletarian and Marxist character o f the SPD by an appeal to the Bürgertum, which is n o t quite the same word as the English “ middle classes.” Nationalization has n o t the im portance among German Socialists th a t it has with the L abour Party, bu t the program me contains a dem and fo r the nationalization o f the basic industries th a t is closely bound up w ith the Socialist opposition to the European Coal and Steel Community.

There is a dem and for “ peace and mutual respect among the denom inations and ideologies,” but the political practice in those German Länder governed by Socialist majorities is one o f Kulturkam p f methods against the Catholic claims th a t parents ought to be able to choose the type o f schools for their children, and not the State. In Lower Saxony, where H e r r Voigt is M inister o f Education, this practice has now been relaxed to the extent th a t the M inister has perm itted local authorities to exercise the right, previously his own, of deciding on the need o r otherwise o f a Catholic school. But anyone fam iliar with the workings o f local government in Germany must suspect th a t the well-known ministerial a t titu de on these school questions will continue, in practice, to override the considerations o f subordinate authorities.

The SPD programme contains the custom ary support for