THE TABLET. December 31st. 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6032

TH E TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

FOUNDED IN 1840

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

DECEMBER 31st, 1955

NINEPENCE

E xperim en ts w i th Nuclear Weapons: The Appeal of Pope Pius XII to the World N ew M en and O ld P r o b lem s : The Government’s General Post Im pressions from Germany: I: Berlin, and the Catholic Press. By Douglas Woodruff

Ita lian D is c o n te n t s : Wages and the Price of Olive Oil

Portrait o f an E d ito r : Geoffrey Dawson of The Times The Church in th e H ebrides: Roots of a Long Tradition. By J. L. Campbell Am erican C o lon ia l O r ig in s : The Myths and the History. By Christopher Hollis B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Man on his Past and The Statecraft o f Machiave/li, both by Herbert Butter­

field ; No Passing Glory, by Andrew Boyle ; The Big Lie, by John Baker White ; A Match fo r the Devil, by Norman Nicholson ; The Deliverance o f Sister Cecilia, by William Brinkley ; The Captain Leaves his Ship, by Jan Cwiklinski ; Journey to Dana, by Christopher Portway ; A Young Man's Fancy, by Adrian Bell ; Deliverance, by L. A. G. Strong ; Autumn Term, by Joan Whitty ; Seaview House, by Elizabeth Fair ; The New Noah, by Gerald Durrell ; and a selection of children’s books. Reviewed by Outram Evennett, Aubrey Noakes, Sir Arnold Lunn, R. C. Scriven, Robert Cardigan,

Christopher Pemberton, R. Arnold Jones and Maryvonne Butcher.

A WARNING FROM ROME

P OPE PIUS XII, in his Christmas Eve allocution, from which we print the principal passages on another page, called in categorical terms for the control, by international agreement, of all experiments with nuclear weapons and for their absolute prohibition in warfare, as “an obligation on the conscience of nations and their leaders.” It would not be enough, the Pope declared, to ban experimental nuclear explosions without also banning their use in war and instituting an effective system of international control in peace-time.

Too many experimental explosions, so more and more scientists believe, would create atmospheric conditions, “whose diffusion depends on elements not under man’s control,” that would carry a grave danger to life. In depicting the hideous consequences of an atomic explosion used as a weapon of war, the Pope used language by now all too familiar. Speaking of the control that might be exercised to ensure the observance of an internationally accepted prohibition, the Pope mentioned the suggestion, made (although he did not say so) by President Eisenhower at the Geneva meeting, for “inspection by properly equipped aeroplanes” ; but the Pope seemed to prefer the idea of “a world-wide network of observation posts, each one staffed by experts of different countries and protected by solemn international pacts.” “Such centres would have to be equipped with delicate and precise meteorological and seismological instruments. They would render possible the control of many— unfortunately not all—of the activities of atomic experiment.”

The context of the Pope’s urgent appeal will escape no one. It was immediately preceded by a reiteration of the Church’s condemnation of Communism, and a sharp rebuttal of those who maintain “that the Christian ought today to see Communism as a phenomenon or a stage in the passage of history, one of the necessary ‘moments,’ as it were, of its evolution,

and consequently to accept it as if directed by divine providence.” The Pope called only for an anti-Communism that is authentic ; that does not share the same basic materialism and come thereby to cherish illusions about the possibility of co-existence, but is based on true spiritual and moral values. These things need to be very clearly understood, the Pope insisted, because “it is precisely against the religious and Christian man that the charge will be brought by some of being an obstacle to peace ; of opposing the peaceful coexistence of men, of nations and of different systems.” We must be prepared for such accusations.

The Pope concluded by recalling what he wrote at Christmas last year concerning “the relations between Europeans and those non-Europeans who aspire to full political independence.” Disputes must not be allowed to bring lasting bitterness ; for “might not a third party come to profit from such enmities ; a third party which neither of the others really wants, and cannot want ?” “Let not those peoples be denied a fair and progressive political freedom-, or be hindered in its pursuit. To Europe, however, they will give credit for their achievement ; to that Europe without whose influence, extended to all fields, they might be drawn by a blind nationalism to plunge into chaos and slavery.” But the Western peoples, on their side, must not remain passive in the face of such problems, “in futile regret over the past, or in mutual recrimination over colonialism.” They must strive constructively to extend “ those true values of Europe and the West which have produced so many good fruits in other confidents.” “The more Europeans strive for this, the more help will they provide for the just freedom of the young nations, which in turn will be saved from the pitfalls of a false nationalism. This is in truth their real enemy, which would set them one day against each other, to the advantage of third parties.”