THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 170 No. 5083

LONDON OCTOBER 9th, 1937

SIXPENCE

IN THIS ISSUE

CATHOLICISM IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND

A Survey of Growth by Philip Hughes WILL AMERICA ABANDON NEUTRALITY?

By Christopher Hollis

FULL TEXT OF THE POPE’S ENCYCLICAL ON THE ROSARY

NEWS FROM SPAIN FOREIGN BROADCASTS

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS

Editorial Full Contents List on page 472.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Supporting the Franc and the French

The Anglo-French Note to Italy was a short document which suggested that just as discussion had successfully brought about agreement to repress incipient piracy in the Mediterranean, so agreement should be possible on the more difficult question of withdrawing foreign aid from Spain. The question is already the chief preoccupation of the Non-Intervention Committee. It is one which obviously and directly interests not merely the two intervening powers—France and Italy—-who are closest to Spain, but the Germans and, very particularly, the Russians. The attempt to narrow the conversations to the Italians, leaving Germany to one side, is not likely to be welcomed, and the Note was not despatched with any particular expectation that it could meet with full and immediate acceptance. It ignored the fundamental Italian position, that Italy will never tolerate a hostile Red regime established in the Western Mediterranean. The question at once arises why the British Government have prejudiced the conversations between Great Britain and Italy which are due to begin this month, not only in Rome, but with the visit of Count Ciano to London. The answer lies in the parlous condition of affairs in France. Great Britain is, today, keeping the Government of M. Chautemps in existence. That Government replaced the Blum Cabinet as a gesture towards the Conservative and financial elements in France. M. Blum, the Socialist, fell, and M. Chautemps, the Radical, succeeded him, as a guarantee that there really would be a pause in the Leftward movement of French industrial policy. The Chautemps Government is now reaping where the

Blum Government sowed. The social measures passed last year are bringing about a rise in prices which affects all classes and is hastening the attempts of the well-to-do French to move their savings into foreign currencies against inflation. The temper of the Left has grown increasingly ugly as it sees the danger that benefits promised by legislation will be neutralized by a change in the value of money. The one great card of M. Chautemps and M. Delbos is that they command the confidence of the British Government because of their moderation, and that while they are in power, Britain and France will walk in step. Should they be swept away by their Left, those who replace them at the helm might easily find the British Government estranged and hesitant. It is the overriding rule of French foreign policy to keep as close to Great Britain as possible. The British Government are extremely anxious to prevent the further deterioration of the political position in France, and it is accordingly judged necessary, even at some risk, to strengthen the hands of M. Chautemps. The Italians know very well, none better, how empty and indeed how impudent is the threat to open the frontier between France and Spain when that frontier has never, in fact, been closed, and has constituted the chief channel through which Valencia and Barcelona and Madrid have been equipped. The members of the International Brigade did not merely travel through France, they were recruited and assembled there. The real threat is not to open the frontier, not to send materials which have never ceased from being sent, but to organize supplies of mercenary troops, to provide a stiffening, and to repeat the considerable achievement