THE TABLET November; 14th. 1959. VOL. 215. No. 6234

Published as a Newspaper

THE ' 5

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

NOVEMBER 14th, 19 59

NINEPENCE

The Modern Imagination: The obstacle to Belief

Irish Emigration to Britain: in. The F u tu re . By G a r re t F itzG era ld

1lie Approved Sehools : Punishm en t o r O pportunity . By T erence M. C luderay

St. Andrew's See : F a th e r Dvornik on the P a t r ia rc h a te of C onstan tin op le . By Eric John

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

WILL THERE BE A SUMMIT?

~J'HE summit conference continues to recede.

President de Gaulle now proposes that the Western Powers should meet again, to make sure they are in agreement, after M. Khrushchev has spent a fortnight in France in the second half of March. This is to defer the Summit Meeting until late May or June, a full six months away. By that time the American public will be thinking about the Party Conventions to choose presidential candidates, and everyone will know that President Eisenhower is entering the last six months of his Presidency. He will speak for America with ever diminishing authority, and be naturally reluctant to commit an unknown successor when he will have no good reason for doing so.

When more than a year will have passed since the summit meeting was first envisaged, the same argument th a t has been allowed to prevail when the French and German urge it, that there is no great advantage in haste, that the status quo which exists today in Berlin is probably preferable to any change to which the Russians would agree, will be heard with equal cogency in the United States. President Eisenhower seems quite likely to miss a summit conference altogether, but he will have done his duty by the Republican Party by demonstrating his readiness for it, so that the Democrats will not get any advantage in the presidential election campaign. In these circumstances, it will be tempting for President Eisenhower to content himself with the extended travels he is proposing for his last year of office ; travels which it is desirable that he shoqld undertake, as such a naturally good mixer in the international world. He might leave the summit to his successor, for the new President and the new Secretary of State will enjoy immense authority by comparison with a fading administration.

It seems probable that this is what is in the minds of President de Gaulle and Dr. Adenauer, as they play for time, with de Gaulle doing the talking but Dr. Adenauer reaping the main advantage. The chief political consequence of Mr. Macmillan’s initiative for a summit conference has been to strengthen the FrancoGerman partnership in its first critical year after

General de Gaulle had come to power. At first the Germans were quite uncertain how far the spirit of ‘ La France seule,’ his war-time motto, still animated him. They have been immensely reassured. De Gaulle is nearing seventy, and all his life as a professional soldier he has had to envisage Germany as the enemy. But that same flexibility of mind which made him among the first of France’s professional soldiers, whose tendency is to think on orthodox and traditional lines, to appreciate the revolutionary influence of the tank and motorised armaments as the new cavalry, is equally the mark of de Gaulle the statesman.

To form an alliance with the Germans is a big departure from traditional French thinking. But in their different ways many other Frenchmen had come to accept it, as far preferable to being patronised and led by the Americans and the British. Europe has to be created, to enable France to continue in the world in the front rank, and this is a conception acceptable to the Germans and the Italians, and Belgians and Dutch, because they are all Europeans, not willing to have their destinies settled for them by anybody, however well meaning, who does not belong to Europe.

All these countries would have accepted Britain as one of themselves. The refusal came from our side, and reflects the profound difference that being an island has made in our history and outlook. We would not be happy inside any European political institutions, and the more authentic they become the less happy we should be. We have every right to pay the price, and it will be a high one in terms of trade, for retaining our independence. What we have no right to do is to refuse to wish the new policy well from the bottom of our hearts, just because it may prove commercially disadvantageous. Probably it will, but even then we may be agreeably surprised how much we shall benefit from the increasing prosperity of a large protectionist unit, just as we have benefited from the prosperity of the United States.

Mr. Selwyn Lloyd has to convince the French, and the other European peoples, that he and Mr. Macmillan, who was a well known figure at Strasbourg in the years