February 16, 183S

THE TABLET A Weekly N ew sp a p e r a n d R e v ie w

DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS V E ST R IS CONSTANTER MANEATIS

From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.

Vol. 16 5 . N o . 4945.

London, February 1 6 , 19 3 5 .

Sixpence.

R e g is t e r e d at t h e General P o st Of f i c e as a New s pa p e r .

N ew s and Notes . . . Page . . . 193 The N ex t Election ... . . . 197 Easter with the Liturgy . . . 199 Blessed Thomas More on the Saints . . . . . . 200 The “ Guardian ” and Sir Thomas More . . . . . . 202 Notes for Musicians . . . 202 R e v ie w s : The Priests’ Emperor . . . 202 Portugal as a Joke . . . 203 St. John of the Cross . . . 203 Perhaps . . . .... . . . 204 New Books and Music . . . 204

C O N T E N T S

Page

Prom Abelard to Kant . . . 205 L et t e r s to th e E d i t o r : BB. John Fisher and Thomas M o r e ................. 206 A Cardinal for Scotland, too 206 The Westminster Succes­ sion in 1903 206 The Slumables .................206 Correspondence : Rome (Our Own Corre­ spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ............................ 209 The Sovereign Pontiff’s Coronation-Day ................. 211

Prom The Tablet of Long Ago 211 The Catholic Association in 1935 211 Our Lady of Lourdes . . . 212 Obituary ................ . . . 212 The Famine in the Soviet Union ............................ 213 E t Cæ t e r a .................... 214 Calderon : The Dramatist of Scholasticism ................. 215 Coming Events ..., . . . 215 Or b i s T errarum : England ............................ 216 Scotland ............................ 216

Or b i s Terrarum ( Oontd.) : Page Ireland ....................... 216 Belgium . . . 217 Easter Island ................. 217 France ............................ 217 Germany ............................218 Molokai .............. . . . 218 Monaco . . . ... . . . 218 Portugal ............................ 218 Rumania . . . 218 Spain . . . . . . . . . 218 U.S.A. . . . 218 The F i sh e r Memorial S an c ­ t u a r y . . . . . . . . . 220 Soc ia l and P ersonal . . . 220 Ch e s s .............. 220

NOTANDA The coming canonizations. The Bishop of Southwark’s address of homage at the reading of the decree (p. 209). What Blessed Thomas More himself taught concerning the Saints and their images and relics, A Guardian error (pp. 200, 202).

Chatham’s Memorial to Blessed John Fisher. Last Monday’s ceremony at St. Michael’s (p. 220).

The Sovereign Pontiff’s Coronation Day. Celebrations of the anniversary, at home and abroad (p. 211).

India. Some short Notes on the four-days’ debate in the House of Commons (p. 193).

The next General Election. At serious length, a Tablet leader-writer reviews the Parties (p. 197).

Unemployment. How Their Majesties’ Silver Jubilee could relieve it (p. 194).

Bolivia and Paraguay. A Note on a questionable decision of the British Government (p. 196).

Easter with the Liturgy. A three-days’ Conference at Beaumont College, Old Windsor (p. 199).

The annual dinner of the Catholic Association. Points from the speeches (p. 211).

NEWS AND NOTES M EN not yet white-haired remember Victorian days when Indian affairs were discussed in a usually lethargic House of Commons. Different indeed has been the temper of Parliament since the Great War. The four days of this month’s historic debate on the second reading of the Government of India Bill drew together crowded assemblies of Members, who were helped to a decision by speeches of exceptional merit. When the vote was taken on Monday night, 404 Members approved the second reading while 133 were against it. These figures, however, would be misleading if they were left standing alone. The 133 dissidents were not a

N ew S e r ie s . Vol. CXXXIII. No. 4344.

solid and homogeneous phalanx. On the contrary, they were made up of two groups, each of them more hostile to the other’s Indian policy than to the Government Bill. To be more precise, about fifty of the malcontents were men of the Left who are apparently willing almost to let India slip out of the Empire, while, rather more than eighty were diehards of the “ No Surrender ” school. This means th a t the Government can claim for its Bill a majority of about eight to one against Mr. Lansbury’s followers and of about five to one against Mr. Churchill’s. But here again the figures and ratios cannot fairly be left without comment. Labour a t this moment is hugely under-represented in the House of Commons ; and this fact ought to be mentioned, despite our belief th a t the rank-and-file of the Labour Party throughout the country are more conservative than their leaders so far as India is concerned.

So very long and complex is the Government of India Bill th a t we shall not attem pt to criticise or even describe it in detail. We confine ourselves to one grand fact, for which every Christian newspaper ought to give thanks. The keynote of the debate was India for the Indians rather than India for the British. Years ago, it was too common an experience to hear talk which made a harsh discord \vith our fine boasts about the beneficence of the British Raj. Hundreds of thousands of Britons looked upon India, with its 300,000,000 native inhabitants, mainly as a market for British goods and a field for the employment of British officials. Indeed, this selfishly British view of India is taken by many people even in our own day and generation. Here is a dismal example. Last Monday morning, perhaps in a forlorn hope of turning one or two votes away from the Bill, the Daily Mail came out with a leading article of exceptional length, elegantly headed “ The Bill is a Swindle.” Various typographical devices were employed to make this article more emphatic. The leader-writer divided his argument into six sections, each of which began with the words, in italics, “ The Bill is a swindle.” And what was1,