THE TABLET, September 25th, 1954 VOL. 204, No. 5966

THE TABLET

ruD iisn ea as a ncw byapci

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

F O U N D E D IN 1840

SEPTEM BER 2 5 th , 1954

N IN E P E N C E

Under Observation: The Dangerous Irrationality of Our Politics

Malthusians in R e tr ea t : The World Population Conference in Rome. By Colin Clark

France, Germany and F iisto ry : Nationality is Not Enough. By Bela Menczer

A Glimpse o f R ouault: A Meeting in Paris. By Sir John Rothenstein

WAY in Singapore: The World Assembly of Youth. By Michael Kaser

Palestine P ilg r im age: The First from England since the War. By Mgr. J. M. T. Barton

All AugUStinian Congress: I : Communications. By Nigel Abercrombie

S to ry - te lle r : A Tale of Childhood in Agra. By Denzil McNeelance

The Apostolic D e le g a te : The Solemn Reception o f His Grace in Westminster Cathedral B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Mountain World : 1954, edited by Marcel Kurz ; Dilemmas, by Gilbert

Ryle ; Livingstone's Travels, edited by James I. Macnair ; Roman Literature, by Michael Grant ; A Short History o f Ancient Decorative Textiles, by Violetta Thurstan ; Mary Magdalene, by RaymondLeopold Bruckberger, O.P. ; Wild Life on the Farm, by Ralph Whitlock ; and In Search o f Winter Sport, by Monk Gibbon. Reviewed by A. C. F. Beales, Dom Illtyd Trethowan, B. C. L. Keelan, J. C. Marsh-Edwards, Violet Clifton,

A. H. N. Green-Armytage and Pamela Whitlock.

THE LONDON CONFERENCE T HE Nine-Power Conference will open in London after the weekend with an auspicious feeling that there is broad agreement between the views of Britain, as they were conveyed by Mr. Eden in his recent tour of the European capitals, and of France, as they were expounded on Monday by M. Mendes-France to the Assembly of the Council of Europe at Strasbourg. All the Governments represented will have fresh in their minds, as a powerful persuasion, the warning uttered earlier a t Strasbourg by M. Spaak, when he said that in his view the Americans will be genuinely in a mood, when Congress reassembles later in the autumn, to consider contracting out of Europe altogether. I t appears to be agreed by those who are assembling in London that Germany and Italy can be brought into the Brussels Treaty Organization on equal terms, that this can become the instrument through which a supranational control of all armaments can be exercised, and that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization can continue to be the supreme authority in the co-ordination o f defence. The broad picture is accepted by all, and the points of disagreement are relatively small. But it will still remain to be seen how far the French Prime Minister speaks for his country, and how well the confidence he gained in procuring an armistice in Indo-China within a predicted time-limit justifies him in saying now that in the next three months he can persuade the National Assembly to accept German rearmament, and membership of NATO, on these fresh terms. We hope he is right.

mean, as many Americans have taken it to mean, that the whole grand vision of a federal Europe, towards which EDC would have been a major advance, has been abandoned. His argument is only that too much in that direction must not be attempted in too short a time. But to show himself a good European he went to Strasbourg to unfold his ideas to the Assembly of the Council o f Europe before making them public anywhere else, and he was insistent that supranational ideas play an essential part in his plans for the future. The Brussels Treaty Organization which it is proposed to enlarge and develop can, he said, be organically linked with the Council of Europe and with OEEC, and a supranational executive authority could be extended to its Council of Ministers as they undertake the task o f setting limits to the armed forces and the armament production of the member-countries. It would have “ the utmost powers o f inspection.” A development of this kind would be in the full spirit of the movement towards a federal Europe.

But the condition is made by M. Mendes-France that there shall be a genuine British participation. At Strasbourg, as on the previous day a t Nevers, he again spoke of the lack of British participation as a principal reason for the French rejection of EDC ; and at Nevers he adopted the argument of M. Herriot, that while EDC would have brought France nearer to Germany, it would have taken her further away from Britain, and that therefore it would have been a disaster. In this country, on the other hand, the Daily Express argues that any special ties with Europe will separate

He is seeking to show that the rejection of EDC did not