THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

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

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

J U N E 5 t h , 1 9 5 4

N I N E P E N C E

P e n te c o s t and th e Papacy : “The Saint Raised U p by Providence for our Times”

The C ou n c i l o f Europe: The Recent Session in S trasbourg. By Christopher Hollis, M .P .

W ith Diver'S T ongues: M odern Uses o f the Vernacular. By Charles R. A. Cunliffe

The C an on iz a t io n o f P iu s X : An Account from Rome, and the Pope’s Allocution

H ow C a th o l ic is S candinavia ? : II : The Breaking o f the Barriers

B on ifa c e o f C red ito n : A Key Figure in European H istory. By Roland Hill

East M e e t in g W est: Mr. Jerro ld ’s Answer to Professor Toynbee. By Bela Menczer

B o o k s B e v i e w e d : EuropeanThought in the Eighteenth Century, by Paul H a z a rd ; Petrus Borel, by

Enid Starkie ; The Conquest o f Wessex in the S ix th Century, by Gordon J. Copley ; Old Vic Prefaces, by Hugh H u n t ; Everyday L ife in New Testament Times, by A. C. Bouquet ; Jung's Psychology and its Social Meaning, by Ira Progoff ; The Deserters, by H onor Tracy ; The Malacca Cane, by Robert Kemp ; Maggie Rowan, by Catherine Cookson ; An End and a Beginning, by D o ro thy Cowlin ; A Flame fo r Doubting Thomas, by R ichard Llewellyn ; I t AH S ta r ted with Columbus, by R ichard A rm our ; and a selection o f children’s books. Reviewed by A. G o rdon Smith, Derek S tanford, A. D. Lacaille, John T. Boorman, D. J. Leahy,

F. B. Elkisch, M. Bellasis, Godfrey Scheele and Janet Bruce.

TOWARDS ARMISTICE?

A N armistice in Indo-China appears probable, although it remains to be seen on what terms, and how far the four Viet-Minh divisions advancing upon the Red River Delta will get before the cease-fire sounds. N o commander can relish an annistice when he feels himself to be on the eve of great new successes, and the Viet-Minh General Giap surely has that feeling now.

The resignation of M. Jacquet, Secretary o f State for Indo-China, may have helped to clear the confusion in which the French Government’s policy in Indo-China has been involved. M. Jacquet, who was a member o f the Gaullist Rassemblement du Peuple Français, entered the Laniel Cabinet last year when the coalition with the Gaullists was formed. He reversed the policy hitherto conducted in Indo-China by M. Letourneau, which had aimed a t the consolidation o f Vietnam and o f the Emperor’s position, and a t an increased French military contribution with American financial and material aid. M. Jacquet a t once took up the offer o f an armistice which Ho Chi Minh issued by means o f an interview with a Swedish journalist last November, and wanted to start negotiations. He encountered the opposition of M. Bidault and M. Pleven, who mistrusted the Viet-Minh overtures and preferred to attem pt a settlement through an international conference. M. Jacquet had only the support of a few deputies o f his own party, but he inspired a Press campaign, chiefly through the columns of the weekly PExpress, in which the Government’s official policy in Indo-China was attacked and France described as a helpless instrum ent of the Americans. M. Jacquet’s relations with the Express have now been uncovered, when last week details of General Ely’s secret report about the military position in Indo

China appeared in that journal. A search of the editorial offices ordered by M. Pleven, the Minister of Defence, resulted in the discovery o f incriminating material, which proved M. Jacquet’s part in last February’s Press campaign and justified M. Pleven in asking for his resignation.

Meanwhile, Party Congresses o f the French Socialists, the MRP and the German Christian Democratic Union which were held last week have lightened the gloom hanging over the present political scene in Western Europe. They have not been able to dispel it, but by concentrating on the undiminished importance o f the European Defence Community they have revived hopes that it may be realized after all. Nothing new was or could be said about that languishing cause by its French Socialist supporters or opponents, but the vote approving ratification of EDC, by 1,969 against 1,215, with 285 abstentions, and the much larger majority which decided that when the parliam entary debate takes place deputies shall vote en bloc according to the Congress decision, and not independently as some have wished, were a trium ph for the European-minded Party Secretary, M. Mollet.

It remains to be seen whether the decision to place the unity of the Socialist Party above personal views will remain effective when the time comes. Of the 105 Socialist deputies in the Assembly, fifty-eight had already, before the Congress, declared themselves opposed to EDC. Their signatures appeared under a manifesto entitled Against the Clerical and Reactionary Little Europe, which described the treaty as contrary to basic Socialist principles. M. Mollet believes that when it comes to the vote in the Assembly there will, however, be no more than fifteen of this group ready to defy the party Whips. For such recalcitrants a proposal of