THE TABLET, September 5th, 1953 VOL. 202, No. 5911

Published as a Newspaper

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

SEPTEMBER 5th, 1953

NINEPENCE

Parties and Programm es in W estern Germany: Before the Elections

Before th e Trade U n io n Congress : The Coming Debates about Nationalization

O r th odox Jew s in Israel: A Plea for the Internationalization of the Holy City

Bradshaw’s C en ten a ry : The Man who Watched the Trains Go By. By B. C. L. Keelan

At th e Edinburgh F e s t iv a l : I. The Confidential Clerk. By George Scott-Moncrieff

II & III. Music, and The Rake’s Progress. By Rosemary Hughes

IV. Fotheringhay. By Sir John McEwen, Bt.

The H o ly See and S p a in : The Concordat Signed last Week

B ook R e v ie w s : By Thomas Gilby, O.P., Gerard Heym, Bela Menczer, Tudor Edwards, Aubrey

Noakes, and B. C. L. Keelan. Correspondence from Canon Alban Burrett, Edwin Essex, O.P., Basil Davidson, Ann Bridge, Alan Rye,

R. B. Ramsbotham, A. F. Allison, and Lady Antrobus.

WEST GERMANY VOTING “ ' T ’HE quick road to catastrophe,” said Sir D avid Kelly

A in Copenhagen, presiding last weekend a t the second in te rnational study conference o f the A tlantic Community, is the inveterate optim ism which makes people search ceaselessly fo r evidence to support a preconceived conviction th a t Soviet policy is always changing for the better, and has begun to improve even more markedly since Stalin died. So likewise did General G ruenther, making his first major public speech since he took over the Supreme Command o f the Allied Forces in Europe, warn his hearers about a sim ilar complacency in military matters. “ I can assure you,” he said, “ th a t there is no evidence th a t the arm ed strength o f the Soviet bloc is growing weaker. On the contrary, all intelligence reports indicate th a t it is increasing.”

When General Eisenhower undertook the command to which General G ruenther has now succeeded, two and a half years ago, he said th a t he expected the next two or three years to be th e m ost difficult. But General G ruenther now says :

“ I th ink th a t it requires no great vision to be able to predict th a t the next two and a half years will probably be more difficult th an the first two-and-a-half-year period .” The Soviet A ir Force has something like twenty thousand operational aircraft, a high p ro portio n o f them jet-propelled, and it is here th a t the most critical Western deficiency lies. Air power is the dom inant facto r in modern warfare, and it can act with such swiftness th a t there is no tim e for the mobilization o f reserves. The forces a t the disposal o f the N o rth A tlantic Treaty Organization have roughly doubled since G eneral Eisenhower began to organize them, but they are still no t strong enough, said General G ruenther, “ to defeat an all-out a t tack ,” although they could probably contain the Soviet forces a t present stationed in Eastern and Central Europe, thereby winning time, if an offensive in the a ir could be held, to mobilize reinforcem ents on the ground while Soviet reinforcements were being brought from Russia. But during th a t tim e Western Germany would be devastated.

These are the considerations in the back o f all German minds as they approach this weekend’s elections. The result is th a t it is external relations, which had no t yet been returned to German responsibility when the last elections were held, in 1949, which now provide the issues, ra th e r th an internal questions o f ideology or social policy. Many o f those who oppose D r. Adenauer do so n o t so much because they dislike his Government a t home as because they believe th a t Germany must for the sake o f her own perilous fu tu re remain apart from the N o rth A tlantic Treaty Organization and ap a r t from any European Defence Community. D r . Adenauer, on the o ther hand, has been saying in his election speeches th a t he does not believe there will be a war, on the ground that, a lthough the Russians undoubtedly w ant to possess them selves o f the industrial resources o f Western Germany (to look no fu rther westward) they will continue to hope to achieve this by indirect means, th rough the penetration o f th a t united and neutralized Germany to which they look forward in their frequent Notes, from which th e Powers will have agreed to withdraw. D r. Adenauer professes himself confident th a t the Russians will not risk a w ar in which the prizes would be quickly destroyed.

Marshal Juin, who commands the Allied Forces in Central Europe, a Frenchm an who in th e past has expressed misgivings about the proposed European Defence Community, spoke in a different sense on Tuesday, insisting th a t a German arm ed contribution is indispensable to the defence o f Western Europe. The chief issue in the West G erm an election is whether such a contribution will be made available. The British Press has no t been rem arkable fo r any great perception o f Germ an politics during the weeks preceding the election ; the Daily Mail, for instance, had on Tuesday an article about