THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 174 No. 5175

LONDON, JULY 15th, 1939

SIXPENCE

IN T f f lS ISSUE

THE TRADITION OF GERMAN CATHOLICISM

By Our Central European Correspondent

A COMMENTARY ON THE SPANISH WAR

By Hilaire Belloc THE “OUR FATHER”—II.

By Mgr. Ronald Knox

GOLD AND SILVER IN AMERICA

By Christopher Hollis Full List o f Contents on page 68.

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Comintern

The appointm ent o f Lozovsky as permanent head of the Soviet Foreign Office and principal adviser to M. Molotov is a matter o f some interest, particularly in view of the talks now proceeding in the Kremlin. Its chief significance is th a t it puts an end to the pretence th a t there is no connection between Russian diplomacy and the Comintern, organ o f international revolution. Lozovsky, a Jew whose real name is Solomon Abramovitch Dridzo, is a former Secretary-General of the Profintern, the Red Syndicalist International, and is a t present a member o f the executive committee of the Comintern, as well as o f the central committee of the Russian Communist Party. What is o f particular importance, he is, after Rakovski, the member o f the ruling clique in Russia with the most intim ate knowledge o f affairs in France and England. He lived in France before the War, returning to Russia after the October Revolution, and being almost a t once sent back to France to organize disorder there. He was responsible for the split in the C.G.T. which took place in 1923, and was the chief creator o f the Moscow-directed C.G.T.U. He was a t work in England in 1924, and was agitating among the Welsh miners during the General Strike in 1926. He is an expert in the technique o f revolutionary strike-raising, and the author of a text-book o f the subject, which has been published in French under the title La grève est un Combat. He has worked also in Poland, where he is remembered as one active agent among the textile-workers a t Lodz. He is, par excellence, an apostle of Revolution Through War. I t was, however, his immediate chief in the hierarchy o f the Comintern, Manouilski, who declared in March, a t the Congress o f the Russian Communist Party, th a t “ Communists must support every war that brings nearer the victory o f the world proletariat, of which the interests coincide with those o f the country o f Socialism. . . . This war will be the most just, the most holy, th a t has ever been fought in the history o f mankind, a war which will necessarily stir up a whole series o f revolutionary outbreaks within the enemy ranks, and which will break up and demoralize the ranks of imperialism. ’ ’ The full text o f this remarkable declaration can be read in Correspondance Internationale, the organ o f the Comintern, April 24th, 1939, pp. 455-460.

The tru th then is th a t the Russian Comintern is still confessedly engaged in endeavouring to foment war in order to facilitate revolution, and that one o f its chief organizers, Lozovsky, has been installed as principal adviser to Molotov. Since Molotov never leaves the Kremlin, i t might well be this man, if any, whom the Soviet sends to Britain and France as her special diplomatic representative. I t will be pleasant for him to receive official protection from the London and Paris police, to whom he is already familiar. I t was only a few months ago th a t he wrote in the French publication La Vie Ouvrière, to which he is a regular contributor, th a t his chief aim in life is the overthrow of the existing order in the Great Democracies. Count Grandi’s Departure

Count Grandi, after seven eventful years as Italian Ambassador in London, is leaving to become Minister o f Justice. When we say th a t he takes with him our hopes for his prosperous future, the expression is something much more than a conventional tribute to a departing and popular Ambassador. His seven years in London have not been easy years. When he came in 1932, the sky was clear, but each following year it darkened, and from 1935 onwards the period has been the most strained and difficult in the history o f the two countries. I t is easy enough for a diplomat to win regard in a foreign capital in ordinary circumstances :