THE TABLET June 8th. J957. VOL. 209, N o . 6107

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 184 0

JUNE 8th, 1957

NINEPENCE

M. Khrushchev on T.V. I The Idea of a Neutral Zone in Europe Anxiety and Selective Protest in Japan: a Report from Tokyo

Obedience and Authority : The Basis of Obligation. By the Bishop of Salford The Future of Africa: The Encyclical “ Donum Fidei.” By John L. Coonan 44 Plechtige Communion " : Whitsuntide in Flanders. By C. B. Acworth Bayswater Centenary : The Oblates of St. Charles. By Cyril Wilson, o.s.c. Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

'T'HE report from Tokyo which we print on another page not only describes the widespread and most understandable apprehensions of the Japanese at the H-bornb tests in the Pacific, but also draws attention to the highly political views of those who have organised demonstrations outside the ,British Embassy, showing a capacity for selective indignation with which we are also familiar in the Western world. The political exploitation of the fears of those who are not scientifically informed is not only lamentable in itself but makes it more than ever difficult for ordinary citizens to have any clear views on this critical matter. Meanwhile, however, the growl in 'Moscow is giving place to a grin, in Lord Isntay's phrase; but that, as Lord Ismay also said, is something that has happened often enough before, part of the well-tried technique of blowing now hot, now cold.

President Eisenhower's great difficulty is that the climate has changed for the better. The administration would say it has only changed because of the administration’s strong anti-Soviet policies, but the public is less interested in the causes than in the results, and if they think that, though the skies still have dark patches, the position is very much better than it was a few years ago, they draw the conclusion that surely, at long last, the United States can begin to do a little less abroad in the way of holding up allies who have tended to lean on the broad and solid shoulders of the great country which has underpinned and financed NATO.

It is only inside that front that Great Britain can hope to function as a nuclear Powep It is an advantage for all Europe that one country on this side of the Atlantic should possess weapons at least equal to the Russians, but it does not mean that we can ever or should ever brandish our deterrent or imagine that we now have cards for a game of poker in which our hand will be called. It is only the NATO alliance, covering both sides of the Atlantic and reaching round to Turkey, that is strategically superior to the Soviet Union, more obviously something that cannot be knocked out by the new bombs, because it is too widely snread. No one in this country should imagine we now have a weapon with which to make threats and support a policy. It must be enough that it is known that we possess it, without talking about it, and while making it plain that we have manufactured it reluctantly in order not to be exposed to blackmailing threats. Talks at the Treasury

The idea of a national wages policy has seemed well-nigh irresistibly attractive to every post-war Government at some stage in its life. Perhaps that in itself should make the idea suspect. What is more disturbing is that no Government has deliberately set about devising a wages policy. Sometimes it has appeared as the idea of last resort in a desperate crisis, sometimes as a lifeline thrown out by a chance Court of Inquiry. But it has never been a plank in a party platform, and at General Elections both parties like to forget that they were ever tempted to flirt with it.

The idea has been dredged up once more by a Court of Inquiry into the recent dispute in the engineering industry, and now the Government has been holding discussions with “ both sides of industry ” to see if agreement can be reached on the establishment of an impartial body that could give authoritative guidance on the trends of wages and prices to those engaged in wage negotiation. That the chances of reaching agreement are slim need cause no alarm, for the value of such a body is being greatly over-estimated.

If the Government feels that the principals in collective bargaining are in need of a little guidance on economic matters (and it would be hard to argue that they are not) there is no reason why the Government should not offer it. Governments have in fact provided i t ; and the Treasury has been particularly active in publishing notes in its Bulletin for Industry on prices and wages. But behind this week’s talks was the notion that the digging out and the publishing of facts on prices and wages should be done by an impartial body on which both sides of industry would be represented and whose advice both sides would therefore be morally bound to respect. It is admitted that setting up such a body would require far-reaching changes in the unions, and between unions and the Trades Union Con­