May 19, 193i
THE TABLET y i W e e k l y N e w s p a p e r a n d R e v i e w
DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS
From the B r ief o f His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
V ol. 163. No. 4906.
L ondon, Ma y 19 , 19 34 .
Sixpence.
R eg is tered at the General Post Of f ic i as a News p a p i*.
Page
New s and No t e s ...................6 17 Menzhinsky— N e r o ................. 621 The Saar ............................ 622 Blessed Conrad of Parzham 622 The Patron of Lawyers . . . 623 About Some Manuscripts . . . 624 R e v ie w s :
Father Bede Jarrett’s Ad
dresses ............................ 624 Epistemological ................. 624 On M o lok a i............................625 A Bold A t tem p t ................. 625 From Menes to Cleopatra 626 Disgruntled ................. 626
CONT New Books and Music Page . . . 626 Books Received . . . 627 Catholic Education Notes . . . 628 From The Tablet of Ninety
Years A g o .............. . . . 628 Syon A b b e y .............. . . . 629 The O.E.G. Apostolate . . . 630 With the Pilgrims at
Lourdes .............. . . . 630 Liverpool Cathedral . . . 631 Correspondence:
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ......................... 633
ENTS
Page
Our Lady of Walsingham ... 635 The “ Sans-Dieu ” Exhibition ......................... . . . 635 Guild of Our Lady of
Ransom .............. . . . 635 ET C/ETERA .............. . . . 636 OBITl ARY .............. . . . 637 The Martyrs’ No vena . . . 638 Coming E vents . . . 638 Orb i s T errarum :
England . ..
. . . 638
Scotland .............. . . . 640
Or b is T erbarum (Oontd.) :
Page
Ireland ............................ 640 China ............................ 640 Fiji 641 France ............................ 641 India 642 Korea ............................ 642 Luxembourg ................. 642 Manchukuo............................642 Nigeria ............................ 642 Spain ............................ 642 U.S.A.......................................644 “ Lest We Forget” ... 644 So c ia l and P ersonal . . . 644 Ch e s s ...........................................6 44
N O T A N D A
The Russian Nero’s death. A Tablet leaderwriter describes a complex personality (p. 621).
Britain and the Saar. Some comments on a demand for the recall o f Mr. K nox (p. 622).
Tw o Saints o f the Hour. St. Yves o f long ago and St. Conrad o f our own time (pp. 622, 623).
A Silver Jubilee at Syon Abbey. Abbot Vonier’s discourse (p. 629).
English Pilgrims at Lourdes. Some impressions received by The Tablet’s own Correspondent (p. 630).
H ow some wild birds, lately cooped in tiny cages, are now free again to fly and sing. The strange simultaneity o f a drive against The Tablet (p. 620).
“ Sans-Dieu.” The Exhibition at Byron House, near St. James’s Palace (p. 635).
When Archbishops coined money. A disappointing thought fo r Liverpool (p. 631).
Tw o Cathedrals : Arras restored (p. 6 4 1 ) ; Lagos begun (p. 642).
NEWS AND NOTES / ^ O I N G to press on a Thursday, as usual, we write this paragraph amidst a hum o f international excitement. It is rumoured that the Disarmament Conference will very soon be adjourned sine die, and that its failure will be admitted by the League o f Nations. Until His Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has made his promised statement to the Commons, it would be wrong on our part to offer comments on this tragic disappointment. All we can do for the moment is to warn the public against high-sounding manifestos from unrepresentative but pushful persons. On Wednesday night, the B.B.C. announcers gave unjustifiable emphasis to a pert statement from Ruskin
N ew S e r ie s . Voi. CXXXI. No. 4305.
College, Oxford, in which such disputable experts as Bishop Barnes, Sir Norman Angell, Mr. St. John Ervine and Mr. Isaac Foot laid down, in a series of “ musts ” , the future policy o f Britain on Disarmament. We could cap it by a more reasonable series o f “ mustn’ts ” ; but the word is with Sir John Simon.
Through a by-election in West Ham, the National Government loses a Conservative supporter in the House o f Commons, and the Labour Opposition is made stronger by one vote. As Mr. Gardner, the newly-elected candidate, was Labour Member for the same electoral division until the year 1931, his victory over a young and completely inexperienced Conservative opponent is not astonishing. Strange to say, the triumphant Mr. Gardner did not receive as many votes last Monday— the day o f his victory — as on the day o f his defeat in 1931 ; and he fell nearly 3,000 short o f his 1929 poll. In other words, he represents only a minority o f the electors, and the result in West Ham was due to the action, or inaction, of thousands o f Conservatives. The Conservative poll in 1931 was 17,561 ; and last Monday it was only 8,534. This drop o f 9,000 votes is oddly described by the Daily Mail, in big letters, as “ 8,000 Turnover since 1931.” Only a few weeks ago, the Mail used the word “ turnover ” in the same strange way. It is obvious that, if 8,000 West Ham Conservatives had not merely stayed at home but had voted for the Labour Candidate, Mr. Gardner’s poll would have been about 20,000 instead o f 11,998.
A moment ago, we wrote the words " action or inaction.” Nobody knows why 9,000 West Ham voters, who had supported the Conservative candidate less than three years ago, absented themselves from the polling booths last Monday. In many cases—perhaps in the majority of the 9,000—the most plausible explanation is apathy, to which the word “ inaction ” would apply. We believe, however, that very many other voters deliberately stayed away from the poll. They knew that the loss of one
