THE TABLET, September 11th, 1954 VOL. 204, No. 5964

Published a' 'a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FO U N D E D IN 1840

SEPTEMBER 11th, 1954

N IN EPENCE

The T est o f F orm osa: Thinking in Real Terras

B r ita in and th e S chum an P la n : How a Lead Might be Taken. By G. H. Tallack

H a r v e s t in g a fter th e R a in : Anxious Days for the Farmers. By Jorian Jenks

O r th o d o x in C y p ru s : The Church and the Claim to Enosis. By Dom Bede Winslow

M o r e M onk s and Friars : N o World Problem o f Vocations among Men

S c ie n c e T ak in g S to ck : The British Association in Oxford. By Laurence Bright, O.P.

In te r n a t io n a l E d in b u r g h : As the Festival Ends. By George Scott-Moncrieff

Facing and N o t Facing D o om sd a y : Thoughts on Evanston. By Christopher Hollis

T a lk in g o f D ragons: “The Fellowship o f the Ring.” By Christopher Derrick

O b e d ie n c e in C hurch and S ta te : Conversations at San Sebastian. By A. C. F. Beales

B o o k s R e v i e w e d : An Essay in Christian Philosophy, by Dom llltyd Trethowan ; William

Poel and the Elizabethan Revival, by Robert Speaight ; Japan's New Order in East Asia, by F. C. Jones ; Venice and Venetia, by Edward Hutton ; The Stranger in Ireland, by Constantia Maxwell ; The White Sparrow, by John Moore ; The Golden Waterwheel, by Leo Walmsley ; a selection o f mystery stories ; and Padre Pio, by Malachy Gerard Carroll. Reviewed by Peter Stubbs, Barbara May, Wilfred Ryder, Iris Conlay, Pamela Hinkson, Gerard Walker,

Anthony Lejeune and Timothy Matthews.

A PACT FOR ASIA

I T is a pity, if Mr. Eden felt he could not go to Manila himself, that the British Government’s sense o f the importance o f the conference there was not marked by the attendance o f another senior Cabinet Minister. There is a big hierarchical gap, and a publicity value gap, between Mr. Eden and the various lieutenants who help him in the work o f the Foreign Office. At a moment when Mr. Attlee and Mr. Bevan, representing between them the gamut of the Labour Party, have been receiving so much publicity and causing so much disquiet, it was particularly im portant that the British Government should make some counter-balancing and compensatory move in Asia. For a long time Britain has made it plain that we did not like being left out o f the Anzus defence agreement o f the Pacific Powers, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. When the opportunity came, with the need to build something much more broadly based to include three Asian countries which are members of the British Commonwealth, British statesmanship had a long desired and remarkable opportunity, not only for diplomacy but for a large public appearance. While we do not doubt that Mr. Eden was quite adequately represented in the business sessions by Lord Reading, the American Secretary of State was there in person. I t is not surprising if the inference is rather widely drawn that Mr. Eden was glad not to have to commit himself a t this moment about Formosa, as he might have been pressed to do a t Manila. He would have found himself in the quandary that, in proportion as he said things satisfactory to the Americans, the contrast would be marked between Conservative and Labour statements.

Mr. Attlee had to go to China, or Mr. Bevan would have gained a great deal by appearing as the Labour leader who had a practical policy of meeting and conferring with the possible enemy. So, too, the Conservatives, as election year approaches, have to take the greatest care not to be manoeuvred into seeming to be people who, while they want peace and co-existence, do not know how to set about securing those popular objectives. The idea o f conference is always popular where the alternative seems to be a rapid deterioration of relations leading to war. For a brief period Neville Chamberlain gained greatly by his businessman’s readiness to go and meet Hitler. The umbrella symbolized not only the man of peace, but the mobile city man, meeting and ta lk ing things over, and out. Now, as in 1938, there can be no objection to meetings, provided such meetings are clearly understood to be in no sense a substitute for military preparedness. There is always the immense temptation to treat them as though they were ; to say, Heaven be thanked, the tension is relaxed, and we need not do or spend so much.

Led by Mr. Deakin, the TUC has wisely refused an invitation to Moscow such as the parliam entarians have ju st