THE TABLET October 25th, 1958, VOL, 212, No. 6179

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER'& REVIEW

Publsihed as a Newspaper'.

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

OCTOBER 25th, 1958

NINEPENCE

The Momentous Choice: Electing a New Pope The Conclave and the Cardinals: Today and in the Past Along the Road to Frome: II. Becoming a Catholic. By Christopher Hollis Our Lady of Caversham: The Foundation-stone of a new Shrine. By H. M. Gillett

AUTUMN BOOK SUPPLEMENT Reviews by Robert Speaight, P. G. Walsh, T. S. Gregory, Peter E. Peacock, O.F.M. Cap., A. C. F. Beales, Peregrine Walker, Aubrey Noakes, D. B. Wyndham Lewis, Sir Arnold Lunn, Sir John Rotlienstein, D.W.,

Michael Derrick, Frank Littler and Janet Bruce.

THE ROUGH AND THE SMOOTH

T HE French statesman who in the last century re­

marked that in politics everything must be taken seriously but nothing need be taken tragically would commend his dictum to Mr Macmillan’s Government as it meets Parliament this week. There are always clouds, some of them heavy and menacing in the modern political sky ; but clouds often sheer off, and now their pattern is very different to that on which members gazed when they rose for the recess at the end of July.

Deceptive as it no doubt is, there is such a lull in the Middle East that the British troops can leave Jordan in a way that is something of an anti-climax to the mood in which they were sent there in July. That most difficult decision, as Mr. Macmillan called it, has not led to anything very bad, or very good. It looks like a selfcontained episode, on the whole considerably more useful than not, which steadied the position, but was soon seen to be no solution to anything. It has long been clear that Arab unity would not be achieved at all but for the existence of Israel, and the presence and memories of Britain and France. Alike in Iraq and Tunisia, President Nasser’s attempts to force the pace have the opposite effect, and King Hussein will find his best chance of political survival in the reluctance of his immediate neighbours to see the United Arab Republic swallow up Jordan and reach their frontiers. British policy has to steer a difficult course ; to show small rulers like the Sultan of Muscat that they have a prompt and resolute ally if they need one, while making it plain that we have no idea of trying to arrest and stereotype the political pattern of the Middle East, are not working overtime to keep the Arabs apart, and, in fact, would rather prefer to see some confederation emerge, provided it was not xenophobic or imbued with an aggressive national Socialism which left no security for the oil companies or the ultimate consumers of the oil.

But if the Middle East is proving less of a headache than might have been feared, Cyprus has been a story of steady disappointment. The Government still have some hope of achieving a conference, and if they do and can say it would not have taken place if they had not driven straight ahead with their own scheme, that will be some answer to the criticism that the position has been exacerbated by bringing in plans which never had any chance of working.

The Greek Cypriots have only themselves to blame if there now seems to be a working alliance between the British forces and the Turkish minority ; but there is small satisfaction in dwelling on that. These premature attempts to set up new representative institutions obscure the simple issue of terrorism, enable EOKA to say to their compatriots that their position is being deliberately prejudiced, and to that extent inviting and receiving a condonation of their programme, although it is a programme of arbitrarily murdering people who have plainly no connection with the policies EOKA is fighting.

The chief progress to which the British Government can point is that the future of Cyprus is more and more felt to be much more than a British colonial matter. It is an issue primarily between Greeks and Turks on and off the island, not of a colony for which an exception had to be made from the general proudly acclaimed British principle that we work for self-government, and do not try to prevent independence.

The summit talks, which were in both senses very much in the air when Parliament rose, are hardly mentioned now. The end of October is reached, but not before the Russians have resumed nuclear tests on the ground that Britain and America had not responded, and yet with the prospect of talks taking place.

In the Far East, the protagonists have avoided coming