THU TABLET, July 18th, 1953 VUL. 202, No. 59U4

trio iisn ea as a rsewspaper

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER, & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JULY 18th, 1953

N IN E PEN C E

On Equalitananism : A Study in the History of Ideas : II. By Colin Clark

After the Fall o f Beria: The Transformation of the Regime. , By Franz Borkenau

Next Generation: The European Youth Council in Berlin. By Michael P. Fogarty

Leo XIII after Fifty Years: A Pontificate in Retrospect: I. By Humphrey J. T. Johnson

Retreat from Reality: The Riddle of Henry James. By Christopher Hollis

After Olympia: A Fitting Ending to the Vocations Exhibition

Thomas Weld’s Church: A Sermon a t Lulworth. By Mgr. R. A. Knox u Voila la Bastille ! ” : The Church at Lulworth. By E. T. Long, F.S.A.

Book Reviews: By Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, Roland Hill, Elizabeth Sewell, Dr. Letitia

Fairfield, Sir Desmond Morton, Charles Vivian, John Biggs-Davison, and Caryll Houselander Correspondence from Noel Burditt, T. E. Utley, F. A. Pitel, H. L. Cooper, David Jones, J. H.

Crehan, S.J., R. H. M. Dolley, and F. A. Voigt

INVITATION TO MOSCOW T H E best thing th a t can be said o f the projected invitation to the Soviet Union to engage in ta lks is th a t i t is not proposed to hold such talks before the Germ an Elections on September 6th, when they will be conducted with whatever Russian statesm an is alive and in power a t the time. D r. Adenauer is on the horns o f a dilemma. I t is bad for him if his opponents, who include the Social Democrats as well as the Communists, can represent him as the agent o f a Wall Street America which does no t want any peace o r any settlement o r any G erm an unity. But he is also vulnerable, ju s t as Signor de Gasperi was, to the opposite charge o f being like Syngman Rhee, more intransigent and difficult th an his Western allies. The Communists in Italy made very effective use o f Sir W inston Churchill’s gesture towards Moscow. They used it to imply th a t the Ita lian Christian Democrats were either more bigoted th an the British, being a political projection o f th e Vatican, o r much more dependent th an the British on American aid and wishes : o r both bad things together.

Soviet severity and pressure, th e moment is ripe fo r an imaginative wave o f the hand. I t is quite obvious th a t none o f the Western Governments knows whom they would be dealing with if the Russians agreed to meet them in the autum n , and th a t on the vital m a tte r o f which men and which ideas are really in command in the Kremlin th e re are, as Mr. George Kennan has truly observed, “ only different degrees o f ignorance” : although this does n o t mean th a t the speculations and conclusions o f specialists in this field are devoid o f profit o r interest.

On the whole D r. Adenauer has concluded th a t he will be best served in th e critical electoral battle before him if his opponents are unable to say th a t the United States under the Republicans refuse to meet the Russians. The interests o f the G erm an CDU and the wishes o f the new French Government are in line with the policy on which Sir W inston Churchill has em barked, and so, if a little sceptically, President Eisenhower and Mr. Foster Dulles have agreed. The invitation must be considered as a move in the battle for Germany. This is its prim ary motive and justification, and it is so seen by the Americans.

But much larger and looser and more dangerous conceptions are afloat here. There is the idea th a t, following Stalin’s death and the cumulative, if individually small, relaxations of

W hat is indisputable is th a t all is far from well the other side o f the hill, and in particular th a t the a t tem p t to impose the drastic transition to Communism on populations to whom it is something repugnant, alien and tyrannical, has had to be slowed down. I t is also clear th a t the populations o f Central Europe, even the peoples o f Russia, know much more about what is happening in th e outside world th an their masters relish. I t consequently matters comparatively little whether the West makes conciliatory noises o r maintains an observant silence, provided—and this matters vitally— th a t the West is seen to be strong.

This strength is n o t only o r prim arily material. I t is m oral even more. We must convince the anti-C ommunist world th a t our affairs are n o t anywhere in th e hands o f statesm en who, fo r reasons o f their own domestic politics, would ever sacrifice the interests o f the present victims o f Communism. The peoples o f Central E u ro pe lost their national freedom because their Western allies d id n o t know enough about th e Russian Communist leaders, because President Roosevelt halted his arm oured columns in th e middle o f Europe instead o f insisting upon joining th e Red Army in Warsaw and Budapest and the Balkans. A fter th a t tragic deception, we have to do more, and n o t less, to convince the