THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 170 No. 5084

LONDON OCTOBER 16th, 1937

SIXPENCE

IN THIS ISSUE

CATHOLICISM IN THE MIDLANDS

A Survey of Growth by Philip Hughes

THE EUCHARIST IN THE EARLY MONUMENTS

A Study of Art Symbols by C. R. Leetham

SPANISH BISHOPS AND AMERICAN PASTORS

Editorial

FOREIGN BROADCASTS

Full Contents List on page 508.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Calmer Counsels

The view that, after all, the Non-Intervention Committee affords the best place for discussing the withdrawal of volunteers in Spain has, after a good deal of hesitation, been accepted. The Committee is to meet under the clear understanding that it must discover within itself a capacity for prompt action. This requirement is foreign to the whole genius of the Committee, which was never assembled to be a body for swift decisions. It was assembled to be a lightning conductor, and as such it has abundantly justified itself. It embodied, in an institution, that general desire to prevent the Spanish issue poisoning European relations. It was a measure of quarantine, for sharp differences. The Committee is composed of representatives of ail the chief and some minor European Powers, mostly the London Ambassadors, and they have to refer back to their capitals, where Ministers, before deciding, find it very relevant to know what is likely to be decided in other capitals. It seems probable that, as in the past, there will be immediate agreement on the general principle, which both sides have always professed, that foreign intervention should be reduced to a minimum. How to achieve any pari passu withdrawals is a much more intricate question. What the supporters of Valencia would like to see would be that steady intercourse by sea and land between Southern France and Eastern Spain continuing. So far from the issue being whether o r no the French, their patience exhausted, are to open their frontier, the real issue is how far the frontier could ever be effectively closed. If it could be closed, Spain becomes an island, with coasts to be watched by the joint fleets. As generally happens when things become critical in France, the Conservative elements in the Cabinet have been asserting themselves. Three years ago, French relations with Italy were taking a marked turn for the better, as both countries found themselves faced with a rapidly arming Germany. These good relations have been changed into an unfortunately deep and mutual hostility. Those of the French who did not resent the bad example they felt the Italians were setting the Germans by making light of the whole Geneva system, greatly dislike the RomeBerlin axis. These developments have taken place during a Popular Front Government which has made of Paris more than ever a natural capital of anti-Fascism. The Mediterranean routes, which would matter so much to France in a war, are no longer safe. Nor would they ever be safe whatever coups, like a suggested occupation of Minorca, were carried through. The lesson for the French, anxious to move black troops north and south across the Mediterranean is exactly the same as the lesson for the British, anxious to be able to move troops east and west. These movements will never be safe and possible if Italy is on the other side. The same thing holds good for the Italians with their African empire, and the moral is that a Mediterranean understanding is a vital interest for all three countries. That understanding can only be brought about in a larger political framework of confidence that no great schemes of