THE TABLET, July 25, 1959. VOL. 213, No. 6218.

Published as a Newspaper

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JULY 25th 1959

NINEPENCE

Spain Draws Nearer : A More Liberal Economic Policy.

The Faithful of Scotland ! A Statistical Enquiry. By Frank Macmillan.

The Sociology of Crime! Theories of Personal Responsibility. By Sarah F. McCabe.

Studying St. Anselm : A Congress at Bee. By Gerard Culkin.

Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Chess

THE NORTH WITH THE WEST

MR. KHRUSHCHEV’S assurance to the Poles that the frontier which Russia is concerned to defend against the capitalist world is the Elbe frontier through Germany, a remark which must augur ill for the people of West Berlin, came just before President Eisenhower, on the eve of his Vice-President’s visit to Moscow, expressed his own deep pessimism, which the course of the Foreign Ministers’ Conference also justifies. It is as though Mr. Khrushchev had agreed that his Foreign Minister might meet the other Foreign Ministers to humour Mr. Macmillan but never had any intention of anything coming out of it.

It is difficult to think of Mr. Khrushchev as a sensitive soul, easily wounded and deeply hurt by unfriendly comments in the newspapers, and so the Scandinavians are left to speculate why he has abruptly cancelled what was to have been an extensive Scandinavian tour. One explanation can well be the way the movement of the Outer Seven has gathered momentum, following the British concessions to the Danes. This is an economic and in no sense an anti-Russian movement. But it could have made Mr. Khrushchev’s visit fall very flat, for he has no alluring prospect to hold out to the Scandinavian countries. The utmost he can do is to assure them that they have nothing to fear from Russia, except in the degree to which they lend themselves to the hostile preparations of the Americans. The Scandinavians do not believe that they are going to attack or be attacked. The tenor of Mr. Khrushchev’s speeches in Poland, in particular his declaration that the Elbe is the frontier, leaves little room for optimism about any general détente. He travels everywhere as a convinced Socialist, with no doubts a t all about the superior merits of Socialism on the Russian model, which he regards as so great and obvious a good that if any people do not like it they must have it administered to them until they do. Such an attitude holds out no prospects for any closer relations with the Scandinavian countries than the formal ones which exist today and which really serve wel} enough.

Mr. Nixon has promised to keep his talks strictly confidential, but no doubt Mr. Khrushchev will be as ebullient and outspoken as he judges it useful to be, before, during and after the visit. What he has not succeeded in doing is to advance the international standing of the East German Communists, and he plainly owes them something to offset the way in which he spoke to the Polish Communists about the common interests uniting Russia and Poland. Election Shadows on Africa

If the General Election were not so near the Labour Party might have resisted the temptation to oppose the Government’s Commission on the future of the Central African Federation. This advisory body of twenty-six has plainly been selected in the hope of preventing the future of the Federation being made into a party issue here. The Labour Party is to be strongly represented, with three Privy Councillors (though there seems no good reason for stipulating that they must be Privy Councillors, which Mr. Callaghan, the “ Shadow ” Colonial Secretary, is not as yet). In the minds of Labour Party members there exists a wholly unrealistic picture of African society, which makes no proper allowance for the extreme lengths towards which intimidation is carried. The tribal past was no sort of preparation for democracy. I t did not encourage the individual to make up his own mind on public issues, and there is very little independence of view as yet. I t augurs ill if a broadly-based Commission, whose function is to draw up an agenda, cannot go out from this country with the backing of both parties. The impression will be deepened among the Europeans in these territories th a t the Labour Party has no sympathy with them and wants to put them as quickly as possible under African majority rule, which means the rule of party chiefs; while those party chiefs are encouraged to think that they have only to refuse to listen to anything from the present Government because they will get all they want if Labour comes to power.

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