THE TABLET, May 14th, 1955. VOL. 205, No. 5999

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

F O U N D E D IN 1840

MAY 14 th , 1955

N IN E P E N C E

H ig h -L evel Talks: The Western Disadvantage Austria B ecom e s In d ep endent: I : Bags being Packed. 'B y Stella Musulin

II : Becoming Like Switzerland

The BantU Education Act: The Background and the Burden. By Edward Smithies, S.J.

E n g la nd : Hitler’s Waxwork and Bentham’s Head. By Werner Bergengruen

Im p ression s o f Ireland D iv id e d : The Futility of Force. By Christopher Hollis R e fo rm in g th e B reviary : The Background to Recent Changes. By Lancelot C. Sheppard

P. A ugustin -J ean M ayd ieu , O .P .: A Tribute. By Robert Speaight B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Foreign Service, edited by Lord Strang ; The Wise Man from the West,

by Vincent Cronin ; The Decisive Battles o f the Western World, by Major-General J. F. C. Fuller ; Fra Angelico, by Giulio Carlo Argan ; The Life and Work o f James Gibbs, by Bryan Little ; Far Morning, by Edward Griersop ; How Like a God, by Stewart Thomson ; and Vanquish the Angel, by Diana and Meir Gillon. Reviewed by Sir George Rendel, Anne Bridge, J. J. Dwyer, Anthony Bertram, Lance Wright and

M. Bellasis.

HUSTINGS IN THE HOME N EITHER in 1935 nor in 1945 did the Conservative and Labour Parties use very different language to the electorate about foreign policy. In 1935 both proclaimed their devotion to what was called collective security and the League Policy ; in 1945 both looked forward to close co-operation with both Russia and America. But there were differences of emphasis on each occasion such as do not look like emerging in the 1955 election. Twenty years ago the Labour Party had a strong pacifist wing, led by George Lansbury with all the appeal of a simple and noble nature, and ten years ago it had some extravagant enthusiasts for whom the Soviet Union could do nothing wrong. Today the Labour opposition to the official party leadership is as widespread as ever, and has intellectually rather more to say for itself than it had ten or twenty years ago. The electorate can see very clearly how easily it could happen that those who thought they were voting for Mr. Attlee would find they had voted for Mr. Bevan, because in the end the constituency Labour Parties are the movement, much more than the trade unionists, who vote because they are told, arbitrarily and improperly, that it is part of their duty as trade unionists to let their political party be chosen for them by the trade union movement.

coming of television weights the dice in favour of the official leadership and helps to correct the natural pull to the Left which results from the fact that youthful enthusiasm and cheerful voluntary work are generally inspired by farreaching ideas of social transformation.

All the accounts show so far that the effect of television on the old-fashioned kind of meeting in halls and schoolrooms is at least as great as anybody anticipated, and even the expedient of showing the television speaker in a hall, so that there can be speeches and questions around him, when it was tried at Preston on the occasion of Mr. Macmillan’s television appearance by his son-in-law Mr. Julian Amery, did not result in either the numbers or the discussion hoped for. Perhaps, however, the parties ought to televise their opponents’ appearances, and then answer what is said then and there. The public has long since been accustomed by television to political debate, and it is probable that in live, unrehearsed debates lies the best chance of providing local attraction for audiences. The candidates will be driven by the absence of audiences to go round together, so saving money.

The conflict inside the Labour Party is in many places much more interesting than the contest between the two parties. Just as in the United States in safe Republican or Democratic seats the primaries, to decide who shall be the candidate, are the real election, so the real election at Gorton was the primary which ended with the choice of Mr. Konni Zilliacus instead of the more moderate Sir Frank Soskice. But the

Mr. Butler is a Free Trade Chancellor who accepts the logic of Free Trade for an expanding economy, and, while there is nothing in the least doctrinaire about this bias of mind and there are still many exceptions in practice, yet it is not the least of the changes of recent years that the Conservative Party should have become much less Protectionist than the Labour Party. As recently as twenty-five years ago the positions were still reversed. One consequence of this is that the Labour Party has great hopes of an agricultural support of