THE TABLET, October 24th, 1953 VOL. 202,'N o. 5918

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

F O U N D E D I N 1 8 4 0

O C T O B E R 2 4 t h , 1 9 5 3

N I N E P E N C E

Persecution in Poland: l l : The Attempt to Enforce Schism : The Steadfast Clergy

The Role o f the La ity : This Year’s Discussions at San Sebastian. By A. C. F . Beales

Scholarship in Salamanca: A University’s Seventh Centenary. By Richard J . A. Kerr

Employing Older People : A Committee’s Cautious Approach

Continent Isolated : An Anglican View of the Elizabethan Schism

AUTUMN BOOK SUPPLEMENT Reviews by D.W., Christopher Hollis, M.P., Thomas Gilby, O.P., John Biggs-Davison, J . J . Dwyer, A. H. Armstrong, Godfrey Anstruther, O.P., Illtyd Trethowan, O.S.B., Dorothy Sarmiento, Patrick Bushell, Cong.Orat., Henry St. John, O.P., B. C. L. Keelan, Aubrey Noakes, Elizabeth Sewell, M. Bellasis and Maryvonne Butcher. A list of the books reviewed will be found on page 393. Correspondence from Commander D. A . Macmillan, Sir Rupert Hay, E. G. L. Dickinson, Alan Rye and

Joseph W. G. North.

alliance. Much the most im portant single thing in the alliance is Anglo-American solidarity, and this is trea ted with a surprising levity by British Socialists, making speeches prim arily fo r consum ption by a home electorate w ithout thinking o f the impression they make when read in American newspapers.

THE DRAWBACK TO GESTURES I T is quite obvious th a t, while the Prim e M in ister cherishes a great desire to associate himself w ith some exceptional effort to arrest what is otherwise becoming an unprecedentedly expensive and dangerous atom ic arm s race, the practical difficulties in th e way o f G re a t Power talks a re much greater th an was realized last May. Any talks with th e Soviet Union can only result in agreement a t the expense o f th ird parties ; o r so a t least the th ird parties all believe. I f th e Prime M inister should meet M. Malenkov, o r whoever emerged from the Kremlin for a discussion, i t would be a great an t iclimax i f they separated w ithout a jo in t statem ent ; and it is very hard to see what so r t o f jo in t statem ent there could be which did n o t revive unhappy memories o f Teheran and Yalta, o f the recognition th a t many non-Com m unist and Christian peoples were to be left as the appropriate sphere o f rule o f Marxists in the Kremlin. I t is h a rd to see what could be said about Germany, ju s t as it is quite understandable th a t D r. Adenauer has reacted violently against the idea o f the fu tu re o f Germany being discussed w ith ou t his partic ipation. T h a t is th e great weakness o f all high-level talks, th a t all the people who are left o u t dislike th e talks, suspect th a t Vabsent a toujours tort, and th a t if there is any agreement it will be a t the expense o f those who are n o t there.

Anglo-American diplom acy has to be the more careful, after springing a surprise on everybody with th e sudden decision on Trieste. Mr. Eden was plainly uncom fortable in explaining this to the House o f Commons, and is unlucky to have to make his return with such a brief to argue.

I f the British and Americans propose to meet the Russians for a Big Three meeting o f the countries with atom ic weapons, there are many others in th e A tlantic Alliance, beginning with the F rench and the Germans, who w an t to be present. Probably the West is much more likely to get somewhere if i t concentrates on the organization o f a great A tlan tic community, possessing such strength so widely dispersed th a t even if any one p a r t o f it is pu t ou t of action the results will n o t be decisive. T h a t is the p a th o f security : bases everywhere on a vast perim eter. The path o f danger is the path o f separateness, and the great interest o f th e K rem lin is to exploit the differences between the different members o f the

Apparently the expectation in L ondon and Washington had been th a t the Italians would be ju s t as indignant a t the announcem ent th a t they were to lose Zone B as the Yugoslavs a t losing Zone A, bu t th a t the Italian s would have to expect to go w ithout it because the Yugoslavs already have possession o f Zone B. The idea was a de fa c to partitio n , which might leave nobody really satisfied, bu t would mean th a t most people lived under the Government o f their own kind. I t is, o f course, very doubtful which the Catholic Slovenes would consider the lesser evil, religious and educational freedom under Italy or continuance under T ito . The purely ethnographical considerations which a re so fashionable today are n o t necessarily right. People need to recover the idea of the superior virtue o f mixed States. Those who to ok the decision to evacuate were surprised a t th e Ita l ian reaction, n o t apparently allowing fo r the fact th a t what Italian s m ind about is the city o f Trieste, much more th an the countryside, and th a t, having been forced to surrender, w ith much a t ten dant human suffering, all th a t southern p a r t o f Venetia G iulia which includes F ium e and Pola, they do n o t m ind so much about the much smaller Zone B. A fter the big sacrifices imposed in the Peace Treaty, and then the long failure to do anything to implement the prom ise o f 1948 th a t Trieste should go back to Italy, the main Italian feeling was one of