THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 R EG ISTERED AS A N EW S PA P E R

VOL. 173 No. 5157

LONDON, MARCH 11th, 1939

SIXPENCE

IN THIS ISSUE

THE PAPAL CORONATION

Its History and Ceremonial. By Philip Hughes

PIUS XII AND GERMANY An Account o f the Pope’s Nunciature. By John Murray

“ THE YEARS OF PETER”

A Coronation Legend. By Herbert Thurston, S .J .

THE CHARACTER OF PIUS XII

A Personal Impression Full L is t o f Contents on page 308.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Towards Peace in Spain

The End of Spanish Communism

The seizure o f control in Madrid by the National Defence Council organized by Colonel Casado represents a last attem pt to negotiate terms of peace, failing which the unconditional surrender o f the city to the Government can hardly be more than a matter o f days. The presence o f half a million men under arms outside the capital, ready to take the city by assault at any time, and the blockade o f the coast from Sagunto to Adra, can leave no doubt in any mind that the war is won. The attem pt by the Nationalists o f Cartagena to declare for General Franco, and the surrender to the French a t Bizerta of eleven units o f the Spanish Republican fleet, are indications th a t the people o f south-eastern Spain could not much longer have been deluded. In Madrid, all possible is being done to enable General Franco to negotiate a peaceful transference of the city to Nationalist rule. Colonel Casado and General Miaja are soldiers worthy of the respect o f the Nationalists, who understand soldiers better than they understand revolutionary politicians ; and the elimination of the extreme political elements makes the chances o f an immediate armistice much greater. The recall of General Miaja to preside over the Council is significant, since, as Sr. Azana disclosed in his letter o f resignation, he is now opposed to any further military resistance ; and the third important member of the Council, Sr. Julian Besteiro, a man o f moderate politics, has for the past eighteen months been trying to negotiate an armistice.

The prospect of peace in Spain must cause every Christian to thank God, for the sake o f the people of Spain and also for the sake o f the peace of Europe. As Mr. Mackenzie King observes, the effect in improving and clarifying the general European situation will be at once immeasurable.

Peace cannot be far distant when those who are still offering resistance to the Government turn themselves at last upon their real enemies, the Communists, with whom lies the real guilt for nearly three years o f war. Dr. Negrin, who, particularly since the liquidation of the Trotskyist P.O .U .M . in Catalonia last summer, has been closely identified with the Third International in Spain, and who in Barcelona had the international communist Uribe as his chief collaborator, was surprised to find that he was not received with acclamation by the war-weary people o f Madrid when he returned to that city from France on February 10th, and proceeded there also to consolidate the position o f the Communists as leaders of resistance. Last Wednesday’s Manchester Guardian quotes “ a personality in close touch with Negrin and who left Alicante with h im ” as authority for the view that “ after the collapse o f Catalonia the number of perfectly reliable men in the High Command was very limited. The most reliable were those belonging to the Communist P a r ty .” In other words, only those belonging to the Communist Party could be depended upon to continue the war, and these, therefore, Negrin proceeded to instal in all positions of authority, as Sr. Azana describes in an interview given to the Geneva paper, La Suisse. He formed in Madrid a Mobile Shock Corps o f fifty thousand men under the Communist Colonel Modesto, and gave the command in Estremaduras and Andalucía to the Communists Lister, Coello de Portugal and Taguena. This was what led to his expulsion, and to the formation of the new National Defence Council ; a body which has justified its title by its determ ination to rid Spain once and for all o f Russian Communism. I t condemned Dr. Negrin personally in the most violent language, and in its Manifesto made the interesting statement that