THE TABLET, April 7th, 1956. VOL. 207, No. 6046

Published as a Newspaper

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER &

REVIEW

FOUNDED IN 1840 Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria APRIL 7th, 1956

NINEPENCE

Britain, America and th e M oslem W orld : what a visitor Finds in Washington Secondary Modern R e lig ion : Thoughts in the Margin. By Arthur Barton The Italian Presidential Office: Signor Gronchi in the U.S.A. By Dennis Walters The Church in the Caribbean: Impressions of a Congress, and After. By D.W. Our Lady o f th e Taper : An Ancient Welsh Shrine Restored. By H. M. Gillett W estm in ster’s H o ly Week: The Reformed Liturgy Splendidly Presented “A nxieties and Fears in M en” : The Easter Allocution of Pope Pius XU Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book R eview s : Letters : Chess

SPAIN AND THE MOSLEMS T HE Spanish Government is very wisely not seeking to retain control of Spanish Morocco, but letting it merge with the rest of Morocco in its new-found status. This is in line with the policy which has been pursued for some years, of seeking a special friendship with the Moslem world ; an imaginative conception, turning to account the history of Spain as the European country with the closest association with Moslem culture and Arab blood. The historical legacy might have been interpreted quite differently, with Spain taking the leading part in pushing forward the Christian European frontier, seeing European influence in North Africa as the continued pushing back of Islam. It has not been so seen, both for national reasons, from the disappearance long since of the old close association between France and Spain, and from the need Spain has had to look for friends outside Europe.

however, modern warfare has assumed forms which leave most countries powerless against those few which possess the new weapons, unless those without modern arms have the good sense to make alliances with those countries which have them. That is what the NATO network offers.

It is a great pity that Spain is only partially inside NATO, de facto and not de jure ; and this is something we should like to see rectified, and the general defensive arrangements extended to all the countries north and south of the Mediterranean that appreciate the advantages of this genuine collective security. M. Mollet and the “ Third Force”

To Britain and the United States the Spaniards say they can play a valuable mediating role, since they have never been associated, as France and Britain have been, with what Egyptians look on as the humiliating period since 1880. This period ends as the last battalion of the Guards folds its tents like the Arabs and silently steals away from the Canal Zone.

No country has more national pride than Spain, yet this has not prevented a recognition of the larger common interest which has resulted in the granting of bases in Spain for American forces. What the Spaniards have not been too proud to do, nor the British for that matter, should not be thought a mark of continuing inferiority by the new Arab States, provided they can be convinced that they were never in greater need of protection than now, just as they cease to be in any sense protected.

Few words have been more abused than the word “Protectorate” was in the nineteenth century, in the period of AngloFrench rivalry, when Protectorates were established in Africa to prevent the other European Power coming in. Now,

In an American review, M. Mollet, the French Prime Minister, has repeated some of the criticisms of “Western” policy with which his Foreign Minister, M. Pineau, a short while ago caused a sensation. With the exception of M. Pineau, the French Premiers since Mendes-France have been constantly dreaming of a “Third Force” ; but it is no less difficult today than before to see what exactly they are hoping to get out of such a mythical policy for their country. That there are reasons for the French to be critical of American policy in the Far and Middle East, no one will deny. But what can France profit from a “Third Force” policy ? She has no interests in common either with the neutralist Powers in Asia or with, say, Yugoslavia in Europe. An equivocal French attitude towards Eastern Germany, for example, by the appointment of a French Ambassador to Pankow, would have disastrous repercussions on French relations with Dr. Adenauer ; and M. Diem, the Premier of Viet Nam, will hardly become more confident in French policy in the Far East when he sees the French Government represented in the Communist North of Indo-China, supporting elections which the Communists will turn to their advantage, or defending some of the indefensible leaders of the Vietnamese sects. A dose of political realism is necessary in France.