THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 173 No. 5154

LONDON, FEBRUARY 18th, 1939

SIXPENCE

IN T in s ISSUE

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ON THE LIFE

AND PONTIFICATE OF PIUS XI Contributions by Cardinal Hinsley ; the Archbishop of Liverpool ; Archbishop Goodier ; David Mathew ; Ronald Knox ; Philip Hughes ; Lewis Watt, S .J. ; Donald Attwater ; Gregory Macdonald ; Lord Howard o f Penrith ; Humphrey Johnson, Cong. Orat. ; and others.

CARDINALS AND CONCLAVES A Study in the Composition of the Sacred College. By Philip Hughes GREAT BRITAIN AND EUROPE CATALAN BATTLE

A Survey of Recent Foreign Policy

By Christopher Hollis

An Eyewitness’s Impression

By H. Belloc

THE GOOD PAGAN’S FAILURE The Concluding Instalment of Rosalind Murray’s Apologia

Full List o f Contents on page 196. u \

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Coming Recognition

Both the British and French Cabinets this week •discussed the recognition of General Franco. The French Cabinet have sent back M. Berard to Burgos a little more officially, but that same lack of touch which has marked French diplomacy since 1936 from •divided counsels among Ministers, is still apparent. Mr. Chamberlain refused, in the House, to tie his hands a t all, or to promise a Parliamentary debate before recognition was accorded. The main hesitations in France •spring from the desire to prevent M. Blum and his friends from saying that M. Daladier’s Government has dealt the coup de grace to the Spanish Republicans. That will be said, and may crystallize as a political legend, if there is still a nominal Republican Government in existence in Madrid, whose leaders will at once say that they could have resisted indefinitely if the French had not betrayed them. On every ground, the recognition ought not to be delayed. I t offers the only chance of avoiding a further campaign. Nobody expects there to be much effective resistance to the Nationalist armies if General Franco has to launch them against Valencia an d Madrid, but a great deal o f fighting and suffering can perhaps be avoided i f Britain and France act with decision. President Azana continues in Paris, and is at open variance with his small knot o f Republican Ministers, who are widely believed to be acting under compulsion in making these declarations that the struggle is to go on. There is no future for these men in Spain, or, indeed, anywhere except perhaps in Soviet Russia. Those who desire to prolong the state of war in Spain for its value in advancing the tension in Europe, are able to put great pressure on men so utterly dependent on them for the future. Among the militia-men who ,took refuge across the French frontier, over 100,000

have opted to return to Nationalist Spain, some 50,000 have already been repatriated through Hendaye, and the stream has swollen to such a size th a t the frontier has had to be closed, and the men are being let through at the rate of four thousand a day. The charge is freely made by the opponents o f the Daladier Government th a t it is taking care not to improve conditions too much in the emergency refugee camps. I t does not want any refugees from Spain who can possibly be persuaded to return to their country.

Only the Daily Herald, with an extraordinary disregard for easily ascertainable facts, professes to think that General Franco has made no gestures to encourage the refugees to return without having to fear being held for trial. From the outset of the Catalan offensive, and, indeed, long before, General Franco made these repeated declarations, notably after the capture o f Tarragona, th a t the ordinary conscripted militia-man had nothing to fear. Between three and four hundred thousand prisoners of war in Nationalist Spain know that to be the case. Recognition not a Prize

Meanwhile the same confusion that surrounded the question o f belligerent rights is being shown over the more fundamental issue o f recognition. A rather typical letter appeared in the Manchester Guardian on Thursday, by the small Catholic society whose title is the People and Freedom Group, plainly envisaging recognition as a kind o f prize for good conduct. States recognize each other for their mutual convenience, because statesmen must take account o f realities. Recognition of Franco simply means acting in accordance with the truth o f the position th a t he is the responsible authority in Spain. States do not recognize each other as a mark of approval, bu t to enable international relations to be carried on.