THE TABLET, July 2nd, 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6006

THE TABL ET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Reqina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JULY 2nd, 1955

NINEPENCE

The Press in Britain: A Notable Centenary

N ew Strains in Industry : Human Nature in the Welfare State

A g r icu ltu re and Food: What Do We Mean by Competition? By Jorian Jenks

The Ghost o f B e r ia : Italian and Yugoslav Communists

Training T echnicians: The Fate o f the Grammar School. By Peter Dowden

Priest o f Charity: The Centenary of Antonio Rosmini’s Death. By Roland Hill

The W estm in s ter Jub ile e : A Sermon Preached by Mgr. R. A. Knox B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Personalities and Powers, by Sir Lewis Namier ; The Poetry o f Meditation,

by Louis L. Martz ; Officers and Gentlemen, by Evelyn Waugh; The English Church in the Fourteenth Century, by W. A. Pantin ; Clara Novello, 1818-1908, by Averil Mackenzie-Grieve ; Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, Vol. VIII: Engineering ; Salisbury Plain, by Ralph Whitlock ; and S ix Against Tyranny, by Inge Scholl and Portrait o f a Spy, by Remy. Reviewed by Colin Clark, Christopher Devlin, S.J., Desmond Fitzgerald, Adrian Morey, Rosemary

Hughes, B. C. L. Keelan, Christopher Hollis and Brian Parvin.

SOVIET SOCIABILITY

S AN FRANCISCO was Mr. Molotov's platform. Only two months ago, both President Eisenhower and Mr. Truman had little intention of appearing at the tenth anniversary of the United Nations, but all this changed when Mr. Molotov announced that he was going to be there. There were hopes of important declarations which, when the time came, were however, disappointed. Every word and action of the Soviet Foreign Minister received enormous attention, but the total effect was negligible. M. Pinay said that he had heard ten times before what Mr. Molotov had said, and M. Spaak was alone in detecting “a new tone” which on closer inspection amounted to no more than a desire for a relaxation of tension on the part of the Soviet Union, and a resolve to continue the cold war, but with more agreeable methods.

The Communists, having further to go in retraction of past policies than the Western Powers, are always in a position to make their contributions to pacification look spectacular or even one-sided. And thus, by shaking off a well-earned reputation for intransigence, they can take their stand more effectively on ground where they intend no compromise. That is now the Chinese position in regard to Formosa since the Bandung Conference, and it is Mr. Molotov’s position before Geneva. Fie is still denouncing the Western defensive system as an aggressive system and to repeat the demands which he had previously made, that the Western Powers should give up the military position which, in response to the Soviet dynamic they have taken up since 1942. Two of Mr. Molotov’s “seven points” declaration at San Francisco dealt with this question. There was of course no mention of the military positions which the Soviet Union occupies today in the Baltic States and in Eastern Europe, the threat of which could only be met by the Western Powers with their advanced military bases now surrounding the Communist bloc.

President Tito’s acceptance of an invitation to Moscow has caused some embarrassment in the American State Department, where a similar invitation had been contemplated but not acted upon. The announcement of the forthcoming visit—the Yugoslav dictator may follow Ho Chi Minh, President of North Viet Nam, who is now on his way to the Russian capital—was made in Belgrade on the day when the talks between the Western Foreign Ministers and the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry ended in Belgrade. These were described as extremely successful. In a nice statement the existence of a strong and independent Yugoslavia was described as a contribution to peace and security.

On the surface there are grounds for such optimism. Mr. Khrushchev’s visit to Yugoslavia was clearly one of the biggest humiliations to which a totalitarian statesman has ever condescended. But a mystery remains, and it has not been diminished by the news of Tito’s coming journey. The mystery is whether Mr. Khrushchev’s surprising mea culpa at Belgrade airport was a slip of the tongue, of which this Soviet leader is not incapable, or whether it expressed what he really believed, or whether it was all part of a gigantic deceptive act. Western newspaper correspondents who witnessed the scene observed that President Tito listened to the confession of guilt with a frowning expression on his face, that, contrary to diplomatic custom, he gave no answer, but pointed grimly to have the microphone removed and then led Khrushchev to his car without speaking. The final protocol of the meeting contradicted the official Yugoslav thesis that the relations between the two governments only had been discussed,