THE TABLET, July Mih, 1056. VOL. 70S, Nr». fi0$0

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

FuWished as a Newspaper

FOUNDED IN 1840

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

JULY14th,1956

NINEPENCE

Levelling Down : The Socialist Recipe for the Britain of Tomorrow

Stateless Refugees in Germany: How Judges Defeat the Restitution Law

The Duke of Edinburgh's Conference: Human Factors in Industry the World Over

Tribute to Alban Butler: By Aubrey Noakes

The Hermit of Cat Island : a Personal Impression. By Peter F. Anson

On Teaching Art: By John Bunting

The Berlin Film Festival: By Mary von ne Butcher

Critics' Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

LITTLE TO SHOW

I^A R more important than the colourless and nebulous communique issued at the end of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers talks was the blunt speech made by Mr. Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, at the Australia Day dinner on Monday. Mr. Menzies has always been noted for his power of direct speech, his forthrightness and his strong desire to see the Commonwealth more and more a coherent and effective reality. He said very plainly that gatherings like that just concluded are making the Commonwealth approximate to polite but formal gatherings of different countries, such as might take place at the United Nations. The practical question is whether the old unity between the original Dominions and Britain is something that ought to be diluted and weakened for the sake of the Asiatic Commonwealth countries, in order to avoid two categories of membership, from an apprehension that second class membership by peoples extremely sensitive to any hint of discrimination. But the answer to this is that any discrimination comes from the side of the Asiatic countries. It is they who are fixing the distance which Britain and the Commonwealth is to keep, and if a more effective unity is possible between Britain, Australia and New Zealand and all the countries concerned want it, the fact that other countries do not should be treated as an entirely separate question.

But it is a great pity that Mr. Nehru’s very detached attitude is so likely to set the fashion for countries like the state of Ghana, into which the Gold Coast is to blossom. Gold Coast and Nigerian politicians whose countries really need a very close link with Britain will consider membership of the Commonwealth in terms of the immediate Asiatic precedents.

It is presumably because the contemporary reality of the Commonwealth is so lacking in shape and definiteness that very little attempt was made to strike the public imagination, to take advantage of the meeting in London to proclaim urbi et orbi, that Great Britain remains the centre of something unique and world wide. Those in charge have no heart for formal pageantry. There has been much criticism at the Government’s failure to make anything out of the v is it; but what would have been advantageous for the British Government—and the present administration could do with some more appearances of success at the moment— would increase the difficulties of the Asiatic visitors. The Government consider the chief success of the conference has been with Ceylon ; although the language has to be greatly changed, the essential fact about the naval bases is that they will remain, relabelled facilities.

Mr. Bandaranaike has been strong enough to make such an arrangement precisely because he used such emphatic language before he set out for London. This, it is said, is the substance, that the Royal Navy in Asiatic waters will still enjoy facilities in Ceylon, but now by kind permission of the Sinhalese Government. While this is better than losing the facilities, the position will not be satisfactory until the local population want to see the Navy there, and consider it to their advantage politically and commercially, as it should not be difficult to show them is the case; once they are convinced that the arrangement has not been forced upon them.

This matter of bases represents the short term tactical approach which is the British Prime Minister’s speciality. He can generally fix something up, to prevent divergences becoming more acute. If it all looks a poor substitute for a vision of the Commonwealth, the fault is much more in the people of this country than in their political leaders. Throughout this century a succession of strong and loud voices have been heard, from Joseph Chamberlain to Lord Beaverbrook, trying to rouse the public to a sense of a larger society, whether it is called the Empire or the Commonwealth. But there has been singularly little response from the electorate. The actual history has been a steady