THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 170 No. 5081

LONDON SEPTEMBER 25th, 1937

SIXPENCE

IN TH IS IS SU E

TWENTY YEARS AFTER Ronald Knox looks back on his life as a Catholic

ENCOUNTERS WITH TROTZKY

A Personal Record by V. de Korostovetz

THE UNITED CHRISTIAN FRONT MANIFESTO

Editorial

Full Contents List on page 404

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Mussolini in Munich When Signor Mussolini arrives in Munich today, he does so with his relations with Britain and France materially easier than they have been for a long time past. The mistake of not taking part in the Nyon Conference has been promptly remedied. The Italians have made it plain that they wish to take full part, and are accordingly to be included in the scheme, The French Foreign Minister, M. Delbos, was next approached by the Italian representative at Geneva, Signor Bova-Scoppa, and very general conversations have been opened between France and Italy with a view to seeing if the present strained position cannot be dissolved. For months now, France has been imperfectly represented in Rome, and Great Britain has often been a go-between. The French continue to be the chief support of Valencia, which gets its material and its volunteers overland. From their side, the French attribute to Italian hostility the “ bear” operations from which the franc has been suffering so heavily, and French public opinion has been disturbed by stories that Italian agents are fermenting disturbances in France itself. What is important about these stories is not so much what truth they may contain, but how far they are believed. The French have been worked up into a highly nervous condition with the growing successes of the Nationalists in Spain, and they are manoeuvring so that there shall be no settlement of Anglo-Italian differences which leaves them out in the cold.

relations with Austria, Jugoslavia, Hungary and Switzerland, and said ‘‘If we take a long view of these relations as a whole, we arrive at the conclusion that there is no ground for any drama. ’’ Of France he also said ‘‘that relations with France would certainly be better if in that country authoritative circles were not idolaters before the idols of Geneva, and if there were not also other currents which, for the past fifteen years, had awaited the collapse of the Fascist regime with a tenacity worthy of a better cause.” The British Attitude

Great Britain can only be pleased at the FrenchItalian conversations. We have never wanted to steal a march on the French by healing a quarrel into which we led them originally, but into which they have now gone much more deeply than have we. But while we do not want to exclude them and will be extremely pleased if the whole future of the Mediterranean can be envisaged more calmly, our conversations with the Italians must continue to be independent of the French. We are concerned to make it plain that we are not planning any revenge, not impelled by jealousy or nervousness to strike at the growing Italian Empire before it has had time to consolidate itself. We expect in return to establish relations with Italy which will discourage any idea in the Levant, and among the Arabs, that they have only to bide their time and they will see us with a firstclass quarrel on our hands, in the course of which they can bring our Palestine policy to an end.

In some quarters this Italian approach to France is thought to arise directly out of the Nyon Conference, but on August 20th, in his Palermo speech, Mussolini had indicated his willingness to establish better relations with the French. On that occasion he reviewed Italian

From the Italian side the underlying position remains unchanged. There is not, naturally, any particular identity of interests between Germany and Italy, either in the Mediterranean or in Central Europe, but they have now been thrown into each other’s arms, and the dubious and uncertain state of France, together with the