THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 171 No. 5120

LONDON JUNE 25th, 1938

SIXPENCE

IN THIS ISSUE

CHURCH AND STATE IN ITALY

The Holy See and the Fascist Regime

By Paul Gentizon

ST. PETER IN THE EARLY MONUMENTS

A Study of some Glass and Stone Remains in Rome

By C. R. Leetham, Inst. Ch.

PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE ROYAL VISIT

By Lucien Corpechot

THE DUCHESS OF ATHOLL IN QUEST OF FACTS

A Study of “Searchlight on Spain”

MORE ON HATS LA MANCHA: A POEM

By Hilaire Belloc

By Roy Campbell

Full List o f Contents on page 824.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The British Plan Accepted

The Chamberlain Policy

At the meeting of the Non-Intervention SubCommittee, all the chief Powers concerned accepted the long standing British plan.

The preparations for this development will only be understood if it is remembered that both in France and Britain the Governments are quite clear-sighted about the real position in Spain, but have to deal in their own countries with a public opinion which has been consistently played upon by an intensive propaganda. The French Government, like the British, have known for a long time that, while it is quite an open matter how long the Nationalists will be in winning, it is quite certain that they must win. For many months now the French calculation has not been anything so simple as an acceptance of the thesis that, given equal arms, the Spanish Republicans could turn defeat into victory. The calculation has been that it is better for France th a t the civil war should continue because the friendship of the Nationalists might prove impossible ■to secure. The task of the British Government has been ¡to persuade the French to a very far-reaching change of policy. It is being quietly done the moment the Chamber Las ceased to sit, but it is momentous. The French are ¡prepared to close the frontier, primarily because Great Britain wants to see it closed. In return Great Britain stands by France, refusing to go ahead and implement the Anglo-Italian agreement, and working as a gobetween for a resumption of the French Italian talks. The actual condition governing the Anglo-Italian pact tis effective Italian withdrawal from Spain. But in underlying truth, it is the conclusion of a FrancoItalian pact. We believe the Italians are increasingly coming to realize how, at this moment, nothing helps Mr. Chamberlain more at home than for the Italians ¡to appear to ask without receiving.

The large policy of appeasement upon which Mr. Chamberlain embarked a year ago does not envisage, as its adversaries like to pretend, a succession o f unrelated quick bargains for Great Britain. I t is the unfolding of a closely inter-related series, in the hope that just as a succession of evils logically developed from the Anglo-Italian estrangement, so a beneficent series will develop from the rapprochement between the two countries. I f good relations can be restored in the Mediterranean, the Van Zeeland report may become practical politics. That report seeks to increase world trade. The most immediate step to that end is the Anglo-American agreement, still under negotiation. This agreement aims at a freer interchange o f British manufactures and American raw materials. The British difficulty is to offer the Americans anything substantial in the British market without injuring either the Empire or the South American countries, where Britain is a creditor and must take goods i f she is not to see her debtors declaring themselves unable to pay. The advantages to Great Britain, if the agreement is achieved, will be political as well as economical. It will be suggested very plainly to the world that the resources of the United States are far more likely to be available on the British side of any great struggle than on the other. To President Roosevelt no such political advantages would accrue and he must stand out for good economic terms. Prospects o f the agreement would be much brighter if it includes a resumption by Britain of the debt payments which are now some four years in arrears. When we first stopped paying it was with the hope that world trade would recover, and would be helped to recover, by keeping plenty of money this side of the Atlantic. It was also in a period of rigid economy ; even so it was a mistaken policy, and it is