THE TABLET, April 30th, 1955. VOL. 205, No. 5997

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

APRIL 30th, 1955

NINEPENCE

Election Issues : A fter the Budget Debate

Church and State in Argentina: Secularisation Proceeding Apace

Through the Hoop: Becoming a Parliam entary Candidate

Living Faith and Popular Music: R iches o f the Psalms. By Rosem ary Hughes

SPRING BOOK SUPPLEMENT

B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Hilaire Belloc, by J . B. M orton ; The Dreyfus Case, by G u y Chapm an ;

Poet and Painter : Correspondence between Gordon Bottom ley and Paul N ash ; Renaissance Diplomacy, by G a r re t M a t t i n g l e y Francis Tregian, Cornish Recusant, by P. A . Boyan and C . R . Lam b ; English Historical Documents, c. 500- 1042, edited by D o ro th y Whitelock ; John Free, b y R . J . M itchell ; Going to the Wars, by Jo hn Verney ; Meaning and Symbol in Three Modern Artists, by G eo rge W ingfield D ig b y ; The Pageant o f Heraldry, by H. C . B. Rogers ; Survey o f London : St. George's Fields, by Ida Darlington ; Fabulous Spain, by Jam es Reynolds ; The Valley o f Pyrene, by N in a Epton ; Ghosts o f the Spanish Steps, by Daniele V a re ; Church Building and Furnishing, by J . O ’ Connell ; The Singular Hope, by Elizabeth Sewell ; Trial o f Strength, by Celia D a le ; Requiem fo r a Wren, by Nevil Shute ; Cold War in Hell, by H a rry Blam ires ; and A Window on Greece, by Barbara Whelpton Review ed by R obert Speaight, D .W ., Roger Sharrock, D. B. Wyndham Lew is , F ran k D avey, Professor

David Knowles, M ichael Derrick, Peter Watts, Anthony Bertram , Ja n e t Bruce, A . J . Brooker, Isabel Quigly, C e lia K en t, A rthu r Pollen, Christopher Derrick, Christopher Hollis and M argaret M. Feeny

MR. DULLES AND M. CHOU

T HE British and American Governments have always taken the line that they were in no way reluctant to meet the Russians and see if the tension could be relaxed. But they have thought that this must come after the ratification of the European Agreements. The time-table has just worked. The ratifications are to all intents and purposes through, just as electoral winds begin to blow. The readiness to talk will not be an issue of the British election, for Mr. Macmillan has affirmed the Conservative Government's readiness for talks at any level. Now Mr. Dulles has modified his attitude towards the Chinese Communists, and is ready to meet them without General Chiang Kai-shek.

The American Election is not till the end part of next year, but American campaigns, working to fixed dates, gather momentum, and start gathering it the year before ; and there may well be a recognition of the wide appeal of Mr. Adlai Stevenson’s more conciliatory approach to China which has caused the Republican Government to soften its rigidity. The change certainly comes as a political windfall for the British Conservatives, and it will make much more difficult the canvassers’ door-to-door suggestion that the Americans are inexperienced and dangerous associates in a thermonuclear age, and that they have been allowed to feel that they could count too completely on the acquiescence of the British Conservative Government, but that Labour in power in

Britain would have a steadying effect in Washington. This can hardly be said now ; and it has always been open to the answer that a Labour victory here would greatly increase the American temptation to “go it alone,” so little comprehension did Mr. Attlee show last summer of the importance of Formosa from a military point of view.

Mr. Dulles’ expression of willingness to meet the Chinese Communists without General Chiang Kai-shek may also be an answer to M. Chou En-lai’s skilful speeches at Bandung. There is a dual competition going on in Asia, between the Americans and the Chinese Communists. Primarily the great question for the watching Asian peoples is which is the stronger side. But there is also the question which is the more reasonable, and a competition in reasonableness can bring many advantages. If the Chinese Communists are now concentrating wholly on Formosa, it will destroy their propaganda if they encourage the Korean or Vietnamese Communists to fresh aggression. But the two opposed positions do not seem reconcilable.

M. Chou En-lai has the great advantage that he can talk the same language as Mr. Nehru when he claims Formosa as the sacred soil of China. That is how Mr. Nehru feels about all the Indian Peninsula. It fits in with the doctrine of mass democracy and the absolute rights of majorities, however repugnant it may be to common sense. For common sense