THE TABLET, May 28th, 1955. VOL. 205. No. 6001

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN I840

MAY 28th, 1955

NINEPENCE

An Exporting Nation : The Abiding Duty of Government Summer Holidays: Social Needs and Continental Arrangements. By Jennie Hawthorne

Christian Marriage and English Law: The Gathering Forces

No Socialism in Ireland: Outside the Political Spectrum. By Declan Costello

Reunion in South India: The Malankara Experience. By Adrian Hastings

American Catholic Action: The NCWC. By Robert Wilberforce Not Alphabetic Knowledge : The New Herder. By Roland Hill B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Call o f the Cloister, by Peter F. Anson ; Economic Control, by M. P.

Fogarty ; The Second International, by James Joll ; Only Son, by Walter Farrell, O.P. ; A Christology from the Sermons o f St. Vincent Ferrer, selected and translated by S.M.C. ; The Acceptance World, by Anthony Powell ; The Rigovi/le Match, by David E. Walker ; The Wren, by Edward A. Armstrong ; The Nature o f Evidence, by Sir Alfred Bucknill ; and Letters o f Charles Waterton, edited by R. A. Irwin. Reviewed by the Abbot of Downside, Colin Clark, J. D. M. Blyth, Edward Quinn, W. J. Igoe, R. C. Scriven,

R. L. McEwen and Michael Derrick.

VISITORS TO BELGRADE

T HE ideological exchanges between Pravda in Moscow and Borba in Belgrade throw some interesting light on the Soviet leaders’ visit to Yugoslavia this week-end. Perhaps the impression of a cooling of relationships even before the visit starts is a deliberate one ; but the fact is that Belgrade has rejected the concept of a cordon sanitaire of neutralist States between East and West, and has refused to contemplate joining either of the two blocs ; and Pravda has mentioned “essential differences in the attitudes towards some important problems of social development” which, one might assume, would be a sufficient obstacle to Yugoslavia’s readmission to the Soviet team. There would, therefore, seem to be little reason for the Soviet leaders to make such a journey at all, humiliating as such a journey to Canossa must be for them. Why have they gone ?

M. Khrushchev has answered that the purpose of the trip is to “normalize” the political relations between the two countries, as well as the trade and cultural relations. But diplomatic relations between Yugoslavia and Soviet Russia have been normal for the past two years, and trade and cultural relations surely come under the competence of subordinate bodies in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Foreign Trade. Merely to make declarations about “common interests” on German reunification or the Soviet rearmament plans can hardly constitute a sufficient reason for this journey to Belgrade.

The composition of the Soviet delegation may perhaps serve to elucidate the mystery. One name is missing ; that of M. Molotov, whom one would have expected to accompany a delegation whose function was the improvement of relations between two States. Nor is Marshal Bulganin the Soviet delegation’s leader. The leader is M. Khrushchev, Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ; and another high-ranking member of the party, M. Shepilov, Editor of Pravda, is also there. The improvement of governmental relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, or between Yugoslavia and the Western Powers, is therefore of subordinate significance. The break between Stalin and Tito was a break not between two Governments but between the Soviet and Yugoslav Communist Parties. It is logical that the reconciliation, too, should take place between the leading party men.

But what about M. Molotov ? He, it will be recalled, reminded the Supreme Soviet as late as last February of the Titoist crimes. President Tito happened to be in India at the time, and on his return he issued a declaration opposing M. Molotov’s thesis, which, surprisingly, was quoted verbally in the Soviet Press, and even found a favourable commentary in Pravda. M. Molotov has since receded into the background, and, according to reports about the Austrian negotiations in Moscow, his presence there had no more than a formal significance. The man who did the talking was M. Mikoyan, who is now also in Belgrade. M. Molotov went on record last December as saying that no negotiations on Germany or Austria would be possible after the ratification of the Paris Treaties. But Marshal Bulganin then disavowed M. Molotov with a declaration in favour of Four Power negotiations, and the Austrian Treaty was signed after all.

M. Molotov is, of course, still formally in charge of Soviet foreign policy, but there is no doubt that a bitter struggle for power is being waged among the Soviet leaders, in which foreign policy plays an important if not exclusive role. M.