THE TABLET March 22iid, 1958. VOL. 211, No. 6148.

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

MARCH 22nd, 1958

NINEPENCE

Talking with the Russians: M u tu a l A pprehensions an d Possible A g re em en t

Beating the Drum in Yugoslavia: This W e ek end ’s P o litic a l R i tu a l

Health and Occupation: T h e R eg is tra r-G en e ra l’s Analysis. By T om H a rp e r

Adoption and the Law: M is le ading F ig u res of C a th o l ic C h ild ren N eeding A dop t io n

The House of Lords: W h a t there is T a lk o f R e fo rm in g . By C h r is to pher Hollis

<’4Principality and Polity” : T hom is t Political Philosophy. By th e B ishop o f Salford

Lenten Meditations : V. P h u n ó n an d the Snakes. By Sebastian B u llo ugh, O.P.

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

BEFORE THE BUDGET

j y iR . HEATHCOAT AMORY will need to be quite ex­

ceptionally fortunate to strike the right balance in his budget. Authoritative voices are speaking into each ear, with contrary advice, and both have plenty to say for themselves. One voice says th a t the danger remains the danger of inflation, which would raise the price of British exports, and that this is the worst thing we can risk happening when the primary producing countries have less money to spend on manufactured imports. If the Government relaxes the credit squeeze, wage increases will follow, and prices will go up, whereas if the squeeze is maintained the lower prices of raw. materials in the world will reflect itself in lower prices here, and the vicious wages-prices spiral will at long last disappear. The opposite view is that the great lesson we should have learnt from the 1929 depression is th a t Government must act promptly, th a t it is fa r better to be too soon than too late, and th a t now is the moment to restimulate demand ; otherwise a cumulative chain of unemployment will start, with a fall-off in exports leading to cancellations all through industry ; that the American economy has an immediate as well as an immense effect upon our own, and that in America the recession is continuing ; the unemployed have passed the five million mark, and energetic Government action is now the only hope of preventing a real depression, whose extent is anybody’s guess.

There is some hope that these American Government measures may suffice, for Britain as well as for the United States, the dollar market being the most im portant one for British exports in b a 1a ncc -of -p aym e nt terms. What now seems very unlikely is that the new Chancellor will be able to make any general tax concessions, such as would help the popularity of the Government. Government help will have to be very selective for manufacturers and exporters to difficult markets, and should not be given at this juncture to those who will spend it on foreign imports.

The emergence of even small pockets of unemployment strengthens the case for retaining National Service. I t stops those who argue for relying more and more on nuclear weapons from saying we cannot take men from production to keep them on sentry-duty. If there is unemployment, it would be far better to have young men learning useful things in the army, th an waiting round labour exchanges.

In the same way, there is depression in the steel industry in the States through the switch-over to nuclear weapons in place of tanks and armoured cars. Some of the Government spending to prevent unemployment could go towards more conventional arms. Economically there are not the disadvantages in a switch-back that there were when employment was full. There may be other reasons against, but the old economic one has lost its main force.

Some statements of Mr. R. A. Butler about what the Government still means to do in the way of getting rid of controls, so th a t the Socialists if they come in will have to repossess themselves of them, come, it must be admitted, rather late in the day, after six and a half years of Conservative rule, and can only elicit the comment better late than never. But legislative change is better than administrative decisions which can change with the Minister. Mr. Henry Brooke has done well to overrule a local authority which sought to prevent a man building a bungalow whose main windows face inwards on a courtyard. Their objection was th a t the bungalow looked like a cow-shed from outside. But cow-sheds are not eyesores, and in general the public interest, which Aloes require some control of where people build amid