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THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

FEBRUARY 41h, 1956

NINEPENCE

The Am erican Im pact : A Business Judgment on the Church

M a lte se R eferendum : Reflections after Visiting Malta. By Christopher Hollis « West Indian Federation: The Coming London Conference. By G. V. de Freitas

S tan ley B a ldw in : A Son’s Vindication. By D . W.

A bout B orley R ecto ry : Facts and Frauds. By Sir Arnold Lunn

“That Great I s le ” : St. Francis de Sales and England : II. By David Rogers

TraitOrOUS Iru en eS S : Thoughts on “ Roman Fever” . By Paul Thompson

C r it ic s ’ Page : Second Strings, by Maryvonne Butcher ; Mozart in the B. M ., by Roland Hill ;

Airs and Witches, by J. A . Cuddon Books R ev iew ed : St. John Fisher, by E. E. Reynolds ; Between Liberation and Liberty, by

Karl Gruber ; The Rise and Fall o f Maya Civilisation, by J. E. S. Thompson ; The Adriatic Sea, by Harry Hodgkinson ; Medical Guide to Vocations, by René Biot and Pierre Galinard ; Verdi : The Man and his Music, by Carlo Getti ; Ten Novels, by C. S. Forester ; For All Ye Know, by G. B. Stern ; Oh, The Family, by Clare Simon ; Point o f Order, by Gwyn Thomas ; and The Undoubted Deed, by Jocelyn Davey. Reviewed by N . Macdonald Wilby, Walter C. Breitenfeld, C. A. Burland, Phyllis Holt-Needham ,

J. McDonald, Marguerite Littlehales, Thomas Gilby, O.P., and John B iggs-Davison, M.P.

BANKING GREEK FIRES

A PART from the Cyprus question, the British and Greek l. Governments are on good terms, and there are very few countries with which relations could or should be better. We can well understand how the Greek Government, which has its own political opponents to think about, feels bound to give its support and encouragement to the Cypriots who want to unite themselves and their island to Greece. But support is one thing, and incitements over the radio to violence, and even to murder, go much beyond what is reasonable or tolerable between friends and allies. Yet it must be presumed that the most detailed and urgent representations by the British Ambassador have failed to secure the necessary moderation, and this can be the only reason that has driven Sir John Harding to seek authority in London for the extreme step of jamming these broadcasts. The Colonial Secretary has said he will agree to this, although he no doubt recognises how, on the larger front of the cold war, the abandonment of jamming is a constant Western demand. The only argument for it in Cyprus is that the Athens radio is inciting to bloodshed, and we should like more information about the attitude of the Greek Government, and whether it is really refusing to curb such incitements to death and destruction. We find this hard to believe. The Greeks have suffered violence in their time as much as any people in the Near East, and quite recently in Turkey, and have every motive for helping to establish a better tradition of political moderation. The jamming proposal makes Sir John Harding’s recent speech to lower the temperature is the first interest of all responsible men.

This is true also of the Middle East and of the Washington conversations ; and one of the inflammatory fields in which moderation should be organised, and, if it cannot be organised, fought for with sanctions, is the radio, where the Egyptians are particular offenders against the State of Jordan. The radio represents a relatively cheap way of rocking the boat in someone else’s country, and it is something which Middle Eastern Governments, which are not very strongly rooted, cannot afford to let come unanswered.

It is hard to fathom or deduce the reasons why the Soviet Union chose this moment to offer the United States a Twenty Year Pact, unless the calculation was that it would of course be rejected ; that the gesture of rejection would be treated as an American concession to Britain, as it is being treated, so that then there need be fewer real concessions. In the Middle East it is real concessions to Britain that the Soviet Union would like to prevent. This is the most plausible hypothesis, except the view that these large and meaningless proposals are thrown out to test the political temperature, to see how far attitudes have hardened since last summer’s “summit” meeting. It is all a rather curious prelude to the Soviet Ministers’ visit to London, which is still apparently intended.

Meanwhile, one great problem for the British statesmen is whether they should agree to more mutual accommodation ; that, if Britain is allowed to lead in the Middle East, the