THE TABLET, July 23rd, 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6009
THE TABLET
Published as a Newspaper
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW
Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria
FOUNDED IN 1840
JULY 23rd, 1955
NINEPENCE
Europe D iv id ed and In secure : What the Russians will not Discuss Is Cardinal M in d szen ty R e lea sed ? : Propaganda before the “Summit” Meeting Crisis in S in g a p o r e : Mr. Lennox-Boyd’s Coming Visit C a th o lic ism in B r a z i l : Challenge and Reply. By Godofredo Schmieder, S.J. C onflict or C o -o p e ra t io n ? : A Task for Legal Statesmanship St. U lr ich and E u ro p e : The Augsburg Confession of 1955. By Roland Hill St. Anne in th e T r o p ic s : For Her Feast next Tuesday. By C. B. Acworth B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Hogarth’s Progress, by Peter Quennejl ; The Private Diaries o f Stendhal,
edited and translated by Robert Sage ; Zermatt and the Valais, by Sir Arnold Lunn ; A Rose for Winter, by Laurie Lee ; The Consolations o f Catholicism, compiled by Ralph L. Woods ; A Saint o f the Week, by Desmond Murray, O.P. ; A Guide to English Folk Song Collections, by Margaret Dean-Smith ; Everyman’s ■Dictionary o f Music, compiled by Eric Blom ; Memoirs o f Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar ; The Genius and the Goddess, by Aldous Huxley ; Change Here for Babylon, by Nina Bawden ; Thirty Years, by John P. Marquand ; Son o f a Smaller Hero, by Mordecai Richler ; The Reward, by Michael Barrett ; and The World o f Ballet, by S. Hurok. Reviewed by Aubrey Noakes, Sir John McEwen, Lady Chorley, T. F. Burns, Timothy Matthews,
Rosemary Hughes, J. Lewis May, and John Biggs-Davison, M.P.
INVITATION TO MELT
R USSIANS are expert chess players, and the whole of this Geneva conference is itself no more than a move in a very long game. That the Russians not only wanted it but are behaving in a different way from what had become under Stalin a stereotyped tradition of inflexibility is itself a varied opening, a gambit ; the essence of a gambit being to sacrifice something very small for the sake of securing later a much bigger advantage. The public relations and Press side of the conference seems to have been well organized, technically, in marked contrast to the last conference at Geneva to end the war in Indo-China, and the social side is presented so that no one shall take too tragically the stark opposition of views which has so far marked the public sessions.
To President Eisenhower’s opening proposal for an AllGerman Government based on free elections and entitled to arrange for its defence the French Prime Minister added the important qualifications that united Germany should not have larger forces than were agreed to for Western Germany inside NATO, and that Western Germany should promise not to try to recover the Eastern territories by war. M. Faure strongly opposed the neutralization of Germany as morally and materially impractical, and said a re-united Germany should live inside the Atlantic system, and that the Soviet should understand that this was the safest setting, much safer than leaving Germany on her own. Sir Anthony Eden said that so long as Germany is divided Europe will be divided ;
and here we are sorry he did not add what is equally true, and discussed at greater length in our main editorial, that Germany could be united and Europe still be divided.
Sir Anthony asked why last year’s Berlin conference was a failure. The West had proposed then what President Eisenhower has just proposed again, unification and free elections, which the Soviet had vetoed on the ground that a united Germany inside NATO would be an increased threat to Russian safety and security. Sir Anthony went on to discuss how those apprehensions might be met, and produced his own proposals both for actions and for assurances ; for a security pact to which a united Germany would be a party, each of the members promising to help the victim of aggression. Such assurances have had a very familiar ring, ever since 1919. He suggested reciprocal control and supervision of forces and armaments in Germany, and spoke of a demilitarized area between East and West. His central thought was to proceed with the re-unification of Germany, with every safeguard in word and deed to allay Russian fears, which he accepted as reasonable and sincere.
But Marshal Bulganin, while talking of urgent issues dividing the countries, wanted to begin with disarmament, fixing levels for the Great Powers and prohibiting atomic weapons, asking for some demobilization in Austria and saying that the Soviet was demobilizing the troops it had had there. His main proposal was for collective security, a pact common to all
