THE TABLET. June 26th, 1954 VOL. 203 ,No. 5953

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspape.

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FO UNDED IN 1840

JUNE 26th , 1954

N IN EPENCE

M is s io n from Europe : The Opportunity for Sir Winston in Washington

The R ep r e s en ta t io n o f th e H o ly See : n : By David Johnson

D e fe n d in g th e M id d le Class: An Example from the Netherlands. By Michael Fogarty

C h r is tin a o f Sw ed en : The Story o f Her Conversion. By Anna Haggldf

P e te r ’s P en ce : Evidence o f Anglo-Saxon Devotion to the Holy See. By Michael Dolley

C on ta g io n and C on v ersio n : B. Robert Southwell, 1654-1954. By Philip Caraman, S.J.

C om m em o ra t in g St. B on ifa c e : Last Week-End’s Celebrations at Buckfast and Plymouth

B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Church in England, 597-1688, by S. C. Carpenter ; The Limits o f the

Earth, by Fairfield Osborn ; The Music o f the Jews, by A. M. Rothmiiller ; Venetian Opera in the Seventeenth Century, by Simon Towneley Worsthorne ; A Marshland Omnibus, by S. L. Bensusan ; Small Talk in Sussex, by Esther Meynell ; The Triple Stream, by Anthony Brett-James ; Origen's Treatise on Prayer, translated by Eric George Jay ; The Kelly, by Kenneth Poolman ; Girls at School in the Ancien Régime, by H. C. Barnard ; The New Men, by C. P. Snow ; Big Tiger and Christian, by Fritz Muhlenweg ; and A Cage o f Falcons, by Philip Rush. Reviewed by J. J. Dwyer, A. G. Donnithorne, Rosemary Hughes, E. W. Martin, A. Dru, Timothy Matthews,

Thomas Gilby, O.P., M. M. Norman, Christopher Hollis and Pamela Whitlock.

special status is also envisaged for Hanoi, Haiphong and the three Catholic Bishoprics in the south of the Tongkin delta, while northern and southern Viet-Nam are to be separated—provisionally, as the terms goes—until free elections can be held throughout the country, in accordance with the formula that has proved so fruitless in Korea. Meanwhile, the effect o f the withdrawal of all troops from the two kingdoms will be to leave them defenceless, for the Communists to seize without effort whenever the moment is thought appropriate. It is curious that such an arrangement should be hailed in any Western country as a valuable achievement of patient diplomacy. We do not think that any better solutions could usefully have been proposed at Geneva. We only think that those which are proposed will be highly acceptable to the Communists.

FAR EASTERN LOCARNO ? A NGLO-CHINESE relations are much improved, said Mr. Eden on Wednesday, reporting to the House of Commons before his departure for Washington ; and he went on to say that what is needed in the Far East is not only a South-East Asian defence agreement, but also a general pact of friendship, to which China would subscribe and which would bring in all the Colombo Powers. He cited the model of Locarno. He spoke of the good offices in Geneva of M. Molotov, and received compliments upon his success in holding the Geneva Conference together, so that the change of Government in Paris could jerk it back to life when Mr. Dulles had believed it to be over. There was general relief at the knowledge that the Geneva meetings will be resumed next month, when the reports come in from the commissions which are trying to make arrangements for a cease-fire in the three Associated States of Indo-China. It is still a source of comfort that there should be these meetings ; the belief persists that something is gained by the mere fact of a common presence o f Communist and Western representatives round a conference table. While there is negotiation, it is pleaded, there is still hope of a final settlement. But little support is lent to any such hopeful reasoning by the history of the United Nations, where discussion and negotiation has been going on almost continuously since the war ended, without the Locarno spirit being noticeably kindled.

The kind of “ honourable peace” envisaged in Indo-China will recognize the two independent Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia as neutral States, from which both French and Communist troops are to be withdrawn. The Communist admission that Viet-Minh troops are in fact present in both o f them was made last week, after months of denial. A

At the same time, the Chinese Government have given an impressive reminder to the French and everyone else that in the F ar East it is they who command the big battalions. The population o f China is given in the works of reference as little more than 450 millions. Last weekend, however, it was announced in Peking that, according to what we can believe is the first reliable census ever taken in China, the true figure of the population is nearly 602 millions, or more than a th ird as much again as we thought. This is something approaching double the population of all the Americas, North, Central and South, put together. It is more than three times the entire population of the Soviet Union. What is even more relevant, when the world’s balance of power is being considered, is that the information in the reference books about the material resources of China is also fast becoming out of date.