THE TABLET, October 10th, 1953 VOL. 202, No. 5916

TH E TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

OCTOBER 10th, 1953

N IN E PENCE

The German Trade U n io n s : Catholic and Marxist Traditions. By Roland Hill France in Tunisia: The Record o f Solid Achievement M ille n n ia n ism in Islam : The Predictions of Sheikh Ahmed of Medina. By A. J. Neame

The P illa ge o f C luny A b b e y : A Footnote to History. By A. D. McLean

Before and after D arw in : The Story of Evolutionary Theory. By E. F. Caldin The American C ard in a l : A New Life of Cardinal Gibbons. By Sir Shane Leslie Cardinal Griffin on Poland: The Text of last Sunday’s Sermon B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Water and the Fire by Gerald Vann ; Whither Britain? by R. W. G.

I

Mackay; Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka ; The Life and Music o f Bela Bartók by Halsey Stevens; Seven Fallen Pillars by Jon Kimche ; Nottinghamshire by Christopher Marsden ; Saints Alive by Arnold Haskell: reviewed by T. S. Gregory, Christopher Hollis, Anthony Bertram, Anthony Milner, Rupert Hay, J. C. Marsh-Edwards and Rosemary Haughton Correspondence from James Christie, S.J., J. H. Blaksley, Geoffrey Soden, J. F. Huntington, Helen Parry

Eden, Mgr. J. M. Clarke and Mary Sugrue which stayed united in Korea are no t a t all agreed on the proper course to follow.

WHAT THE CONSERVATIVES LACK W HEN the Conservatives in their tu rn meet a t Margate, the problem o f those in control o f the Conference is very different from th a t which confronts Labour Party managers. M ost o f the resolutions are congratulatory, many a re sycophantic, and there is little evidence th a t the genuine Conservativism which exists in the country has reached the agenda. The country is full o f people who vote Conservative only because Conservatives are a much lesser evil th an the Socialists, and sounder in the conduct o f in te rnational relations. Often they are only sounder because they drift slowly where the Socialists hurry down. When they are judged against their competitors, there is a whole range o f mistakes which Conservative politicians can commit today with impunity, because they are mistakes in the Socialist direction, and the Socialists would commit the same mistakes more thoroughly.

The point o f Mr. Dulles’s new suggestion o f a guarantee o f non-aggression, an assurance to Russia th a t the West will not be party to any German th rea t to the Soviet, is chiefly th a t it can keep the United States and her European allies to g e th e r ; it is a closing o f ranks which it is vital shall stand shoulder to shoulder, and n o t be divided. But the Russians are themselves such past masters in giving general assurances o f this kind th a t they will consider the proposal simply in the light o f its effects on their tactics o f division ; tactics which they could be pursuing a good deal more cleverly but for their living enclosed in the age-old oriental trad itio n , a twin trad itio n o f distrust and belief th a t there is always more to be obtained by being difficult th an by being conciliatory.

Sir W inston Churchill’s speech in May, calling for direct talks with the Russians, had more o f a bad effect in Washington th an o f a good effect in Moscow. The myth has since been allowed to be p ropagated th a t there was a favourable moment, and th a t i t has been missed. The tru th was well expressed by Mr. N u ttin g a t Strasbourg, th a t nothing had happened in Moscow by word o r deed to justify any relaxation o f the course o f resolute defence on which the West under American leadership has embarked.

The course o f the painfully pro tracted Korea negotiations show how doubtful it is whether the Chinese or any other Communists really w ant even a conference. There is still less evidence th a t they w an t peace. W hat they may be assumed to be wanting is what they are successfully achieving, a general debate in which the United N a tio n countries

What the Conservatives need is a vocal R ight Wing, com parable to the Left Wing Bevanite pressure in the Labour Party ; Mr. Bevan and his friends are the real Socialists, but how few and how little heard are the com parable real conservative voices, in the o ther party, th e people who do no t believe in merely doing half-heartedly what the Socialists do wholeheartedly, and want to see these years o f political power used to real effect to break away from the excessively con trolled economy which has been so continuous since 1940 th a t there is a danger o f its being taken for granted. Essentially, the great question is how much o f the national income the Government is to take and spend ; we have already reached the p roportions, no t far short o f half, which were treated with incredulous derision when we first learned in the thirties th a t H itler’s Reich took th a t p roportion from the Germans because it was in the national socialist doctrine