THE TABLET, May 12th, 1956. VOL. 207, No. 6051

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

MAY 12th, 1956

NINEPENCE

D em ocratic Fragmentation : A Process in Asia and Africa E lections in Austria: State Ownership or Distributed Wealth. By Stella Musulin Catholics and Communists in Australia: a Survey : i. By Colin Clark The Necessity o f Frontiers: Against World Government. By John Biggs-Davison, M.P. M ed ieval English Monasticism : Professor Knowles’ Recent Volume. By W. A. Pantin

The V indication o f St. Joan: The Fifth Centenary. By W. S. Scott The New German C atechism : Fresh Approaches to Doctrinal Instruction Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

CANTERBURY V ARIOUS judgments of the Archbishop of Canterbury have been resented in a way which reveals once again the profound Erastianism of the English. We do not agree at all with what he says about premium bonds, whereas we do agree very much with him over Cyprus. But whether what he says is sound or unsound, there can be no question that he is only doing his duty by speaking his mind. The Archbishop is the chief spiritual peer by virtue of his office, a member of the House of Lords, and it is part of his duty to counsel the Queen and her Ministers in the light of his judgment on public policy, especially where that policy has clear moral aspects.

The Government irritation with him is most marked over Cyprus, where Ministers are having a very uncomfortable time, and, while they loyally support each other, there must even in the Cabinet be grave misgivings about where all this repression in defiance of principles which we have made our own everywhere else is going to end. It is a field in which the Archbishop of Canterbury has a particular right to speak, for it intimately concerns the future relationship between Britain and the Orthodox Church. We are left with the feeling that British politicians would have understood Archbishop Makarios very much better, and had much more patience with him, if he had not been an Archbishop. Fellow-politicians they understand, while they have a very distinct pigeon-hole in their minds for Archbishops, based on the traditions and practice of the Established Church. But this country has never lived under rulers of another religion, and the Bishops of the Establishment have never needed to add to their spiritual functions those of national leaders. So British officials can talk of Archbishop Makarios “descending into the political arena,” in a way that betrays a complete lack of comprehension of what his office and position have been for centuries past.

The irritation with the Archbishop of Canterbury comes from the Government’s realization that the Cypriots will be

AND CYPRUS greatly encouraged by the knowledge that opinion in Britain itself is very much divided on the whole Cyprus policy on which the Government has embarked. Exactly the same thing happened in Ireland in 1919, when Lloyd George and Hamar Greenwood were unable to maintain their policy mainly because it was quite insufficiently supported by the British public, who did not like what was being done in its name. It did not think any arguments about the strategic importance of Ireland could either constitute a moral justification or resound simply as a matter of policy. Today we have the same Government which left the Suez Canal Zone, and published the cogent reason that a base of that sort loses its value if the surrounding population is hostile, finding itself driven to courses which will ensure that the base in Cyprus will suffer from exactly the same decisive disadvantage.

The death sentences are judged' inevitable if the morale of the troops and police is to be maintained ; but they make the eventual settlement all the harder as the ghosts of patriots beckon the young. When Archbishop Makarios was deported the Government’s strongest argument was that they could then proceed to smash the terror, and that it was better for him as well as for the British Government if he was out of the island during operations which were then estimated to take six months. It is now clear that, although the terrorist organization may not be numerically very strong, it has the passive support of the population, and when this happens anywhere there is all the time a psychological change going on which is the very opposite to that which a Government desires. People who were at the outset, if not quite neutral, at least not emotionally engaged, now begin to feel a pride of achievement when they have withstood threats and bribes ; begin to envisage the day when they will credit themselves with having rendered the services of selfless patriots, when the truth is that, while they have felt no particular desire to help the Government, the