THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 172 No. 5145

LONDON DECEMBER 17th 1938

SIXPENCE

I N T i n s I S S U E

THE STORY OF THE CHRISTMAS CRIB

Its Origin and Development traced by Nesta de Robeck

PEACE AND THE PRESS

Newspaper Polemics and State Policy MR. CHURCHILL’S PAST Reflections by Christopher Hollis on a Recent Speech THE ZULOAGA EXHIBITION

By Tancred Borenius Full List o f Contents on page 816.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Uphill Path

The Prime Minister, in his speech to the Foreign Press Association, enumerated the succession of bilateral agreements, with Ireland, Italy, Germany, the United States, which have marked the past year. He mentioned them as illustrations of his policy, the only possible one at the present time, of seeking to isolate and to deal with issues which might otherwise fester. He intends to pursue this method of approach, and the visit to Rome will be in the same tradition. But there ran through his speech an unconcealed note of disappointment and of warning. The identity of British interests with France at the present time, the revision of British armaments, their acceleration and expansion, these things had to have emphasis laid upon them lest advantage should be taken of the British desire to remove the possible causes of war, and all sorts of things be brought forward in order to see what concessions might result. France’s Answer

It is a public utility of international interest. The Italians are the second largest users after the British, and last year they paid 175 million lire in dues. The French reply that when the Canal was built it was a hazardous speculation in the eyes of most investors. The English, discouraged by their Government, held back, and although forty million gold francs’ worth of shares had been reserved for Britain, they only took up one-thousandth part of this allotment, 42,500 francs being their sole investment. It was only after the Canal had proved itself, in 1876, that Disraeli managed to buy the Khedive’s share. The French, in short, of the second empire backed the Canal when other people were not prepared to risk their money. And the huge annual returns since are, it is argued, the just reward of far-sightedness. Le Temps adds that the dues have often been lowered and are much below what they might legally be, and that the Canal is kept in first-rate condition. The cargoes in fact pay from two or three per cent of their value, a sum which amounts to the huge totals which the company controls. But these points hardly meet the case. The Nationalist Bombings

The French refusal to consider any cession of territory to Italy was the only reaction to have been anticipated. The British Government have been careful in the last week to make it plain that while there do not exist any legal obligations of a special character, at the present time the identity of interests is so complete and farreaching, that what weakened France would also weaken Britain. No part of Mr. Chamberlain’s speech on Tuesday was more loudly cheered than this.

The French attitude to suggestions about the Suez Canal is expressed by Le Temps, setting out to answer an Italian economist, M. Pirelli. M. Pirelli, who developed his thesis a little while back at the Congress Volta, in Rome, developed the case with many sides of which Sir Arnold Wilson has made the British public familiar. He argued that the Canal must not be considered an industrial enterprise of the ordinary kind.

Under the date December 13th, the Duke of Alba delivered to the Foreign Office the Burgos Government’s answer to various charges against its aviation.. The note states that Nationalist aviation has confined itself strictly to the bombardment of true military objectives as they were understood during the Great War. These bombardments have been done by Spanish airmen, and there has been no intervention by foreign aviation. The note continues that the Spanish aviation must not be blamed if the civil populations are still maintained in the neighbourhood of military objectives. The blame must rest with the parties who place and maintain those populations there “ in pursuance of a prearranged plan to use the victims as material for propaganda.” In order to minimise any accidental casualties the