THE TABLET, February 19th, 1955. VOL. 205, No. 5987
THE TABLET
Published as a Newspaper
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW
Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria
FOUNDED IN 1840
FEBRUARY 19th, 1955
NINEPENCE
The Bangkok Conference : South-East Asia and the Ambitions o f China
Greece and Great Britain : The Problem o f Cyprus. By William Teeling, M.P.
Education in London : The LCC Schools since the War. By Letitia Fairfield
Religion Or Not ? : The Basic Ambiguity in Moral Re-Armament
Europe Before 1918: Mr. A. J. P. Taylor’s History. By Agnes Headlam-Morley
“ Which is to be M aster?” : Three Humpty Dumpties. By Renée Haynes
Meditations in Lent : I : Death and Sin. By Romano Gaardini Books Reviewed : The Mint, by 352087 A/c Ross (T. E. Lawrence) ; The Secret Roads, by
Jon and David Kimche ; Introductory Papers on Dante, by Dorothy Sayers ; The Cotswolds, by Edith Bell ; Map o f Monastic Britain ; The Riddle o f Konnersreuth, by Paul Siwck ; No Price fo r Freedom, by Philip Gibbs ; The Hidden River, by Storm Jameson ; Orellana, by George Millar ; All Day Long, compiled by Pamela Whitlock ; and The Bedside Guardian—3, selected by Ivor Brown. Reviewed by Christopher Derrick, Christopher Hollis, Anthony Bertram, Nevile Watts, Professor David
Knowles, Lancelot C. Sheppard and Anthony Lejeune.
THE COMING VOTE IN BONN A S next Thursday, the date for voting on the ratification of the Paris treaties, approaches in Bonn the German political scene offers a confusing picture. Demonstrations such as that recently organized by the Social Democrats in St. Paul’s Church at Frankfurt have created an impression outside Germany that the majority of the people in Western Germany are opposed to ratification and rearmament without previous negotiations with Soviet Russia. It has been the object of German Socialist propaganda, supported by prominent Protestant theologians like Professor Gollwitzer, to create this impression and to pretend that, with a little effort, German reunification could be had for the asking. It is quite true that there are many people in Western Germany, including some of those who support Dr. Adenauer, who are filled with apprehension over rearmament. That is wholly understandable, in view of what has happened. But it is quite false to think that these Germans represent a majority view, even though their numbers may have grown since last autumn’s rejection of the closer German integration into Europe which was precisely intended to take the sting out of the risky policy of independent German rearmament.
recently pointed out, this fact in itself constitutes a strong and indestructible form of national unity. But the Social Democrats, with their traditional emphasis on the State as the real source of national unity, cannot allow this to go unchallenged. “Reunification” in their mind must be identified with a narrow nationalism because it is in accordance with their Hegelian thinking that the nation and the State must be coincidental concepts. With their one-sided emphasis on the State, Professor Madariaga went on, the German Socialists are advocating a policy which has no general validity in the eyes of the outside world. If instead of confining themselves to Germany they could rise to the wider human problem of securing personal and national liberty they would find more support in the world. If they would advocate the liberation of all the oppressed peoples, they need by no means give up their primary aim, which is the liberation of Eastern Germany; but that aim would then be deprived of its provincial German character and gain sympathies throughout the free world.
Another attitude, however, is far more prevalent, which realizes that Germany cannot in the long run maintain her freedom if she stays unarmed and if she is not willing to defend herself. This is the common-sense view, shared alike by those in Western Germany who are anti-Communist because they want to stay free, and by the Germans in the now Soviet-controlled parts of Central and Eastern Germany who are antiCommunist because they are repressed and exploited by their present masters. As Professor Salvador de Madariaga has
It was typical of this German Socialist refusal to face realities that the latest Soviet offer of “free elections” in Eastern Germany should have been accepted so eagerly without the Socialists asking themselves what value there could be in free elections qualified by conditions such as the abandonment of the Paris Agreement. It was also characteristic that Herr Ollenhauer, the German Socialist leader, should have deemed it necessary to seek support from Mr. Nehru in London for his ideas of German reunification rather than face up to the immediate realities of the German situation after the changes in Moscow and the dilemma into which his party is placed by them.
