THE TABLET y i W eek ly N ew s p a p e r a n d R e v ie w
DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTR IS CONSTANTER MAN EAT IS
From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
Vol. 158. No. 4,780.
L ondon, December ig , 1931.
Sixpence.
Kegi stebkd at tee General P ost Office as a Newspaper
Page
News and No t e s .............. 817 The Catholic Press 821 “ 0 , Sapiential ” .............. 822 Bernardino de’ Busti 822 From The Tablet of Ninety
Years Ago .............. 823 Reviews : Where Once the Harp . . .
The Blithe Sienese India ......................... Broadmoor .............. 824 824 825 825 Books Received .............. 825
CONTENTS
New Books and Music A dvent P a s t o r a l s :
Southwark Middlesbrough The Sisters of Mercy Abbot Cabrol on the Council of Ephesus .............. An Extension at Oscott . . . A Great Ransomer: Lister
Page
826 826 827 82S 828 828
Drummond 830 School Sports ................. 830 Ch e s s ....................................... 830
Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
Page spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ......................... 833 Catholic Evidence "Work 834 Some Christmas Cards ... 835 Catholic Education Notes ... 836 Coming Events .............. 836 Et C.e t e r a ......................... 837 Orbis T errarum :
England, Scotland and Wales ......................... 838 1 Ireland ......................... 839 I Belgian Congo .............. 840
Or b is T errarum: ( Oontd.) :
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
France
Italy
Liberia
Poland
Russia
Spain
Switzerland
Page
840
840
840
840
841
841
842
842
842
842
Obitu ary
844
W i l l s
844
So c ia l and P ersonal 844
NOTANDA Manchuria. A Paris error. The Japan That Is and the China That Isn’t (pp. 817-8).
A Note on Mr. Gandhi’s plans. And a very few words about his passage through Rome (p. 819).
Trouble in Trinidad. H ow Catholics, Anglicans and Hindus have united against the Divorce Bill (p. 818).
The National Government’s “ cpiasi-Hendersonian ” policy towards Russia. One more reason fo r a rupture (p. 818).
A “ Lords’ Match.” Tw o temporal Peers and one spiritual on the sale o f advowsons (p. 819).
The Catholic Press in 1932. A Tablet leaderwriter asks fo r increased support (p. 821).
Bernardino de’ Busti. A sketch o f the poet and some specimens o f his poetry (p. 822).
An extension at Oscott College. The new Common-room wing described and illustrated (pp. 828-9).____________________________
NEWS AND NOTES A COMMISSION of the League o f Nations is going to Manchuria. It will possess no executive powers whatsoever, and its task is purely one o f enquiry on the spot. While Lord Cecil and M. Briand are probably right in claiming that the intervention of the League Council has had a restraining effect in the Far East, cool observers are not enthusiastic. They feel that the League Council, deliberating in Paris for nearly three months, never once grasped the big realities of the Sino-Japanese dispute. Japan’s technical misdeed was magnified, while the dreadful facts o f banditry and anarchy were put second. Worse still, the Council did not make enough allowance for the nebulosity of one o f the disputants— namely China. In a dispute between, say, Bolivia and Paraguay, or between Spain and Portugal, or between Norway and Sweden, there would be two clearly recognizable principals, each o f them exercising effective sovereignty within his own frontiers. But poor China’s national unity is shattered. Even within China proper, the authority o f a Central Government is non-existent, except in coastal towns and in regions where there is contact with Europeans and Americans. For a long while, Japan has been doing immeasurably more than China to keep order in Manchuria and to develop the vast resources o f that country. Of these vital realities the councillors in Paris took insufficient account.
So long as the regrettable influence o f Professor Gilbert Murray remains powerful in it, we fear the League o f Nations Union will cause anxiety to the true friends of peace and progress. Last week, at a moment when there was every reason to soothe the ruffled feelings of the disputants, Professor Murray spoke harshly against Japan, accusing her o f “ violating the second clause o f the Kellogg Treaty.” In the long run, despite the uneasiness of some of his fellow-members, Professor Murray partly had his way and the League of Nations Union passed an unhappy and untimely resolution “ deploring the initiation of hostilities in Manchuria by a member of the League Council.” Japan, of course, was meant.
What The Tablet insists upon is that the Manchurian trouble needs to be faced in a spirit of realism. To treat it as merely Sino-Japanese and to ignore the Muscovite factor is treason to mankind. China’s disunity is Russia’s opportunity. If our brave Japanese friends did not stand, strong and watchful, upon China’s flank, the greater part of Asia would long ago have been dyed Red. No more than a technical breach of the Kellogg Pact was committed when Japan asserted her power in Manchuria, a region where, as we have said already, China had ceased to exercise effective sovereignty. The sane and just policy for good Europeans is to help distracted China to regain internal peace, and, pending the restoration of omnipresent Authority in
N ew S e r ie s . Vol. CXXVI. No. 4,179.
