THE TABLET, December 17th, 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6030
THE TABLET
Published as a Newspaper
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW
FOUNDED IN 1840
Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria
DECEMBER 17th, 1955
NINEPENCE
T a x i n g I d e a s : The Effect o f the New Postal Rates on the Circulation o f Books S o v i e t E y e s o n A f r i c a : Not only India interests M. Khrushchev. By Wilfred Ryder A l b a n i a n F a s t n e s s : Where the Curtain is Tightest. By Adrian Hastings W h a t a b o u t S a n t a C l a u s ? : A Child’s Christmas in Spain. By Nina Epton B o r n e C a t h o l i c s : Some Catchwords and Clichés. By Katharine Garvin F i f t y W i n t e r s o n S k i : Remembering the Mountains. By Sir Arnold Lunn P a r l i a m e n t a r y I r i s h B u l l s : Utterances o f Sir Boyle Roche. By Geoffrey C. Parminter W o r d s i n A d v e n t : IV : The Spiritual Works o f Mercy. By Illtud Evans, O.P. B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Young Samuel Johnson, by James L. Clifford ; Interpretations, edited by John
Wain ; Scottish Poetry, edited by James Kinsley ; Marjorie Morningstar, by Herman Wouk ; The Accident, by Dexter Masters ; Shut Out the Sun, by Lionel Alroy ; The Cruel Month, by Diana Petre ; Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie ; The Patón Street Case, by John Bingham ; Unlucky fo r Some, by Arthur Behrend ; Rigging the Evidence, by Carol Carnac ; The Infant with the Globe, by Alarcon; Marshland Voices, by S. L. Bensusan ; and The Heart o f a Vagabond, by Nancy Price. Reviewed by Christopher Hollis, Roger Sharrock, Sir John McEwen, M. Bellasis, Anthony Lejeune, Edward
Sarmiento and E. W. Martin.
AUSTRALIAN LABOUR
A USTRALIAN electoral law, by comparison with British, makes much more generous provision for postal and absent voting. (Australians in London, for instance, were casting votes at Australia House right up to the hour at which the poll closed in their own State, with a difference of two hours between West Australian voters and those of the Eastern States, because of the longitude difference in so large a continent). This provision, together with the very complex procedure for apportioning preferences in the Senate election, has the exasperating consequence, alike for candidates and for commentators, of delaying some important results until days after the voting. It is not yet possible to judge the course of Australian politics for the next year or so, until the Senate results are known, and until it is seen whether Dr. Evatt retains his own seat. A few votes either way here may make a disproportionate difference, when the whole question of Dr. Evatt’s retention of the leadership of the Australian Labour Party is in doubt.
That the Liberal-Country Government should have scored substantial gains was a foregone conclusion, with the Australian Labour Party bitterly divided as it is. That the members of the Anti-Communist Labour Party should all have lost so heavily to the official Labour Party was not altogether expected, and is an ominous fact. The Anti-Communist Labour Party holds one seat in the Senate (not contested in this Election, for Senators’ seats only fall vacant every six years), in the person of Senator Cole of Tasmania, and there is a possibility that they may win a Senate seat in Victoria. This Anti-Communist Labour Party does not consist entirely of Catholics—the impression which we generally get from the newspapers in this country. Its leader, Mr. Joshua, and a considerable number of its supporters, were Protestants who, while remaining Labour in outlook, considered (quite rightly) that Communism was the greatest danger which Australia had to face. Communism is, indeed, far stronger and more dangerous in Australia than it is in Britain—a standing denial of the silly story that Communism is only a product of poverty.
Likewise, it is regrettable to have to record that opinion among Australian Catholics has been deeply divided. Archbishop Mannix, of Melbourne, now approaching ninety years of age, famous alike for his vigour, his learning, his piety and his charm, commands very extensive agreement among the Catholics in Victoria, but not among many of the Hierarchy or laity in the other States. When Archbishop Mannix first became known as a public figure, in 1917, as leader of an anti-war and anti-conscription campaign, almost all his brethren of the Hierarchy disagreed with him. That unhappy conflict is now forgotten, except by a few extremists, and Archbishop Mannix was a hearty supporter of the Allied cause in the Second World War. But in the equally grave political crisis now developing in Australia, no other member of the Hierarchy has come out in full support of Archbishop Mannix’s sincerely held conviction that the time now demands direct political action by Australian Catholics. Many of the Bishops remain neutral, and some actively oppose him. New South Wales and Victoria both have State Labour Governments with Catholic Premiers, and many pragmaticallyminded Catholics in those important States think that it is better to make every effort to keep them in office, rather than