THE TABLET A Weekly N e w s p a p e r a n d R e v ie w
DUM V O B IS GRATULAMUR ANIM OS E T IA M ADDIMUS UT IN IN CCEPTIS V E S T R I S CONSTANTER MANEATIS
From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
V o l . 1 6 1 . No. 4857.
L o n d o n , J u n e i o , 19 3 3 .
' S ix p e n c e .
R eg is t er ed at the General P ost Of f i c i as a Newspaper
Page
New s and No t e s ................... 713 “ The C a r d in a l” ................... 717 Dilectissim a H isp anorum G e n s ............................................ 718 Coming E vents ................... 720 B rentw ood C athedral P a r i s h 720 R e v ie w s :
C an te rb u ry ’s H eyday . . . 720 F rankenstein Mechanized 720
CONTENTS
Page
R e v ie w s (Oontd.):
T ravel T r e a s u r e ................... 721 Memories ................................72 2 New Books and Music . . . 722 Obituary ................................72 3 Birmingham Diocesan
E u charistic Congress . . . 724 Catholic E ducation Notes . . . 724 F rom The Tablet of N in e ty
Y ears Ago ............................... 725
Page
E t Ce t e r a ................................7 26 Ch e s s ............................................ 727 Correspondence :
Rome (O u r Own Corre
spondent’s Weekly L e tte r from ) ................................7 29 “ The P oo re r S tu d e n t s ” . . . 730 Liverpool’s Metropolitan
C athedral ............................... 731 Letters to t h e E d i t o r :
Diocesan C ensures . . . 737
Page
L etters (Gontd.)
E1 Cristo De B u rgos . . . 738 The Liverpool B ro adcast 738 Social and P ersonal . . . 738 Orb is Terrarum :
England ................ . . . 738 I r e la n d ................ . . . 740 China ................ . . . 740 F ran ce ................ . . . 740 J ap a n ................ . . . 740 M au r itiu s ................ . . . 740 U .S .A ............................ . . . 740
NOTANDA Catholic Liverpool’s memorable Whitsuntide. An eye-witness’s report of last Monday’s stone-laying, together with the relevant Bulls and Legatine Addresses (pp. 731-736).
Spain. The Sovereign Pontiff’s Encyclical on the new spoliatory and restrictive law against the Church. A Collective Declaration by the Spanish Hierarchy (p. 718).
The health of Cardinal Bourne. A Tablet leaderwriter makes a respectful suggestion (p. 717).
Self-help in the Housing Problem. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales repeats a practical suggestion (p. 713).
The first Birmingham Diocesan Eucharistic Congress. Last Tuesday’s impressive demonstration at Coleshill. The day’s events briefly described (p. 724).
Some Catholic names from the King’s Birthday Honours List (p. 726).
Inverness. Why is the historic burg on the Ness a seed-plot of bad manners? (p. 716).
Greece. A word of praise for her actual Government (p. 714).
NEWS AND NOTES S EEING that Self-help rather than dependence upon the State for everything is as necessary for solving the Housing Problem as for any other Problem of the day, it is a happy coincidence that a great International Congress of Building Societies has assembled in London at the very time when slum-clearance, the re-planning of towns, and the conservation of rural amenities are uppermost in the public mind. England is the mother-country of Building Societies, and the movement shows no sign of decay. Since 1919, British Societies have advanced the colossal sum of
N ew Series. Voi. CXXIX. No. 4,256.
£626,000,000 to assist His Majesty’s subjects in building or buying homes of their own. Such figures reveal to us the existence of a solid bulwark against Communism. For as long as we can remember, it has been a reproach against Britain that she falls behind France as a nation of small proprietors and fietits rentiers. Is this true to-day ? Millions of our people live in homes where the nightmare of Rent-Day does not brood ; and most of these thrifty householders boast also their little holdings in Savings Banks or National Certificates.
In welcoming the Building Societies to London, the Prince of Wales spoke with the common sense which we expect and always find in him. He came back to his old proposal for a less wasteful use of urban sites. “ Our big cities,” said His Royal Highness, “ are mainly rows of two-storey houses, making a warren of mean streets.” By pulling down these petty structures and building five storeys high, more people could be housed on each acre, and yet room could be found “ for more open spaces, gardens and communal activities.” Let anybody who doubts the Prince’s words buy a shilling day-ticket on the London tramways and ride about the capital’s ring of Boroughs and nearer suburbs, glancing right and left into the thousands of ignoble side-streets where are the Unstately Homes of England. He will come back amazed at our century of tame obedience to that smallest-minded of men the jerry-builder. Is it too much to ask the greater Building Societies to promote definite schemes of demolition and rebuilding as well as to finance individual borrowers scattered here and there and everywhere ?
A friendly critic of The Tablet’s recent Notes on Parish Allotments protests that in our cutting-up of a supposititious two-acre holding, we allowed for paths but not for a central hut, with a large locker for each tenant’s tools, fertilizers, and seeds. The objector further remarks that such a central hut would be not only indispensable, but rather expensive. In reply, we admit that, while such a
