THE TABLET November 22nd. 1958. VOL, 212. No, 6183

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840 NOVEMBER 22 nd, 1958

NINEPENCE

The Sacred College : The Curia and the Continents 1lie Cardinals-Designate : Those whom John XXIII will Raise to the Purple North African Notebook : I. Tunisia. By Robert Speaight Mary Tudor: After Four Hundred Years. By the Bishop of Salford Penguin Cliesterbelloc : Ten for Your Bookshelf. By Christopher Hollis Oil Racial Discrimination : A Statement from the American Bishops Critics7 Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

LESS CORDIALE LATELY

"Y'HE most significant of the recent developments in the free trade area controversy is not M. Soustelle’s statement, admitted even by some French commentators to have been gauche, but the softer tone of the official comment on the British side. Moreover, though in this country we feel aggrieved with some justice at French tactics, there is a growing awareness of the real substance contained in the arguments used by Paris.

All this points to the possibility of an acceptable compromise in the new year. A free trade area of the kind still envisaged by Britain up to a week or so ago is almost certainly out of the question but a European Economic Association shielding the trade of its members from major distortions arising out of the common market is another matter. This if not within grasp is at least in sight. The immediate task therefore is to undo the effects of unrestrained polemics and' grope towards a realistic agreement, avoiding divisions if need be by temporary expedients.

Of the two chief economic effects of the entry into force of the Rome treaty—a ten per cent reduction in tariffs between members and a twenty per cent reduction in quota limitations—it is the latter which is most unpleasant for non-members. Since the French do not feel strong enough to extend quota concessions to countries outside the common market there is a case for suspending the operation of this part of the treaty for say six months, during which time negotiations undertaken in a better spirit might get somewhere.

When we look back over the two years of negotiations in a more detached frame of mind we shall probably discover in them many salutary lessons. They illustrate for one thing a strange lack of comprehension between Britain and France. The French have been driven to adopt tactics of which they are unlikely to be proud in retrospect but a much more important factor is our own failure to understand the way the French were thinking and to chart properly the various cross-currents. The French have not so much changed their front as presented different aspects of the problem confronting them at different times. It is the political side rather than the economic that now predominates. We were given clear enough warning of this by M. Couve de Murvillc even before his recent visit to London and there is no reason why his talks with Ministers or M. Soustelle’s statement should have produced the sense of shock they did. The moving finger had written and having writ moved on.

Meanwhile, tomorrow sees the opening round in the elections for the first National Assembly of the Fifth Republic ; there will be a second round in a week’s time. When these excitements are over, and the further excitement of the presidential election, it may be that there will be a somewhat easier mood on the French side. Prospects of Employment

When the Labour Party chose to challenge the Queen’s Speech for its failure to offer prospect of reversing the growth of unemployment, it probed the really weak spot in the Government’s armour. The simple truth is that the Government have no plan for reversing the trend : and, as for forecasting when the trend will be reversed by the natural course of events, they can do no more than cross their fingers. I t seems certain that a figure of 3 per cent unemployment will be reached by the end of the winter (the figure, by the way, that was usually accepted in wartime calculations as constituting “ full employment ”). Thereafter seasonal factors should make for some improvement, but even if this is aided by more permanent benefits it is unlikely to bring the percentage down by a full point before mid-summer.

Of the Government’s plans, so far announced, those for raising the level of investment in the public sector ought in theory to make the best contribution to the finding of more jobs. But on the slight information so