THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW
ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER
VOL. 170 No. 5088
LONDON NOVEMBER 13th, 1937
SIXPENCE
IN THIS ISSUE
CATALONIA IN THE CIVIL WAR THE PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
By E. Allison Peers
ON THE USE OF CONTROVERSY
By Hilaire Belloc
JOHN WESLEY BY T. S. GREGORY
Review of the Pere Piette’s Life of Wesley r a m s a y Macdonald
An Estimate Full Contents List on page 648.
THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Mr. Chamberlain
Once again Mr. Neville Chamberlain has shown what a fortunate gift he possesses for speaking to foreign nations. His speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, expressing a desire to clear up outstanding differences, has had immediate good results, and it is under discussion that Lord Halifax should go to Germany to endeavour to carry matters a step further. Mr. Chamberlain did not say a great deal, and what he did say was not more important than the things he refrained from saying, and the notes he refrained from striking. He is a great contrast to his predecessor, Lord Baldwin, who is much his superior in speaking to English audiences. Mr. Chamberlain abstains from violent national assertions, and from proclamations of moral righteousness, and he is precise and manages to hide the conviction of moral superiority. These are important gifts in an English statesman, and explain why it is that, unlike the general run of Prime Ministers, when he speaks about European politics it is invariably to improve the position. It is said that Ministers have been instructed to avoid the word “ slump.” Certainly Mr. Chamberlain was at some pains, in his speech, to draw attention to the bad habit of over-rhetorical and overpessimistic language about the outlook for the world today. The prophets of war and the prophets of depression tend to outvie one another in their confident predictions, predictions due in part to the fact that those who utter them have been for so long advocating, under threats of ruin, policies which have not been followed. Journalism made easy
Now that it is virtually certain that Commissions will go to Spain to count the foreign auxiliaries on each side, the News Chronicle has begun to print stories that the Italians are already secretly withdrawing, as they do not want to be found more than forty thousand strong, that being the figure admitted in Rome. If the Ccmmission should corroborate the Italian figure, the
News Chronicle will no doubt say that its figures of 100,000 or more were always true, but that the Italians stole out as quietly as they had stolen in, unnoticed except by the parties of the Left in France, and their imitators in Britain. It is reminiscent of the simplest and best of all conjuring tricks, where the conjurer shows an empty box, shuts it, declares that there is now a rabbit in it, and that what is more, he who has made the rabbit come will also make it disappear. He then hands round the empty box once more. The Rome Pact
The Japanese and the Germans have for many years now kept in close touch, and it is to Germany that the Japanese look for inspiration and instruction in the Western arts in which they particularly desire to become proficient. Even while the Germans had no real army, German officers were the chosen instructors of the Japanese military party. The adhesion of Italy, after some hesitations, to the German-Japanese pact is a continuation of the line which Signor Mussolini has been steadily following for the past year, of endeavouring to prove to Britain and France the reality of the RomeBerlin axis. It follows logically on his speech in support of the German claim to colonies. It is in no way inconsistent with his repeatedly expressed desire for good relations with France and Britain, but it does suggest a synchronizing of movements among the signatory Powers. The few remaining advocates of what is called strong action by the League always assume that the countries to be dealt with will commit their offences separately and at decent intervals, so that the full weight of Britain, France and Russia can be turned upon them in turn. That is notoriously untrue. The Germans reoccupied their Rhineland zone, in March 1936, because the embroilment between Britain and Italy was then at its height, and the Japanese chose this moment for a forward march in Asia because of the Mediterranean preoccupations of the Western European Powers.
