THE TABLE!' April 12th. 1958. VOL. 211. No. 6151

TH E TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

¡Published as a Newspaper.

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

APRIL 12th, 1958

NINEPENCE

Trading and Visiting: A M ellow ing Process

Youth and Religion: A Y.C.W . E n q u iry . I : The G eneral P ic tu re in E ng la n d

South African Issues : A p a r th e id and the F u tu re . By E l l io t H ay

Israel After Ten Years: The Im p re ssions o f a V isito r. By E ugene H in terhoff

On Nuclear Weapons: T h e E a s te r Serm on o f the A rc hb ish op o f W estm in s te r

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

PROGRAMMES

|U S IN G the bucolic metaphors that come naturally to him M. Khrushchev has warned the capitalist world to keep their noses, or “ as we Socialists say, their pigs’ snouts,” out of “ the Socialist garden.” No outside help will be permitted ; and the peoples of the satellite States are warned that, if they try to help themselves to freedom, the Soviet Union will crush them.

I t is surprising th a t M. Khrushchev should have chosen to make this journey to Hungary, and to ta lk in this vein—which seems to end, incidentally, what prospects there have been of a measure of disengagement in the centre of Europe—just after announcing the suspension of H-Bomb tests and inviting the West to follow suit. Falling back on the stark realities of Soviet military power, he has thrown away many of the advantages which the initiative on the tests promised.

According to the Manchester Guardian’s Washington Correspondent, the American Government has learned with great relief that an analysis of Press comment round the world, and of American diplomatic reports, shows th a t there is plenty of scepticism about Russian intentions. This has been seized on eagerly by the American professionals, as a reason why they can go on with their programme this year and next year, stopping perhaps sometime, but probably never. I t is a melancholy spectacle for the world, witli the two main Powers afraid that the common feeling of humanity will make difficulties for them in their military plans.

President Eisenhower has accompanied his refusal to suspend the American tests by a proposal th a t Russia should join in studying ways and means of keeping fissile material for peaceful instead of for warlike uses. But it is obviously thought and hoped in Washington that, even if this proposal is accepted, it will take a long time to work anything out, so that in the meantime the American tests can go on. That these tests are announced as in large part concerned with getting cleaner nuclear explosions, and with their defensive use, is a minor

UNCHANGED mitigation of what is, in essence, bad news— that the nuclear competition is to go on certainly for one and probably two years, during which the French will have the satisfaction of adding themselves to the list of nuclear Powers.

Except that he did not say, in the manner of the British White Paper, th a t any aggression eastwards would be met by H-Bombs on the centres of NATO power, M. Khrushchev could not have been more bellicose, throwing away the advantage he could derive from looking so much more like a homely farm er than a Marshal.

So far the West has not been able to give any effective answer to the Russian suspension of H-Bomb tests, having failed to say immediately that the news was most welcome, or to announce any date on which they would follow suit, but having been inclined to follow a line of reasoning which ends all hopes of any agreed suspension, saying to the Russians th a t they have chosen a moment that has suited them after completing a series of tests. This is not very cogent when it comes from a country like the United States, which at the time of Suez answered the Russian threats by declaring it was then in a position to destroy the Soviet Union. Nor does it come well from the British Government, whose latest White Paper on Defence professes to be in a position to meet any aggression in Europe by thermo-nuclear retaliation on such a scale that it would only be necessary to sit back and watch what the stupendously horrible results had been. That White Paper may have been ineptly phrased, but if its authors are playing fa ir with the people they govern and represent, and for whose defence they are responsible, they must be assumed to be telling the truth in this grave matter. But if we are indeed already in such a position, that we have a massive deterrent at our command, the world will ask why yet further tests are necessary—what added deterrent strength they can bring, what possible advantage to off-set the obvious dis­