V ol. i 66. No. 4979.
L ondon, October 12 , 1935.
S ix p en c e .
R eg is tered at the Gexerad P o st Off ic b a s a New s pape r .
New s and No t e s .................. 449 The Bells of St. Peter’ s 453 It Has Stopped Raining . . . 453 Prosperous Portugal . . . 454 The Catholic Hospital . . . 455 R e v ie w s :
The Maid ............................ 457 Lawrence of Arabia . . . 458 I Remember .................458 History’ s Part ................. 458 The Spanish Caravel . . . 458 Father Dominic’s Letters 459 Ghetto Comedy ................. 460 Cuba 460 “ The Mixture as Before ” 460 Monastic D e v o n ................. 462
CONTENTS
R e v i e w s ( Oontd.) : Page Mental P rocesses.................462
The Capitalist Spirit . . . 464 “ Fine Mornin’ ” ................. 464 M o n t a ig n e ............................ 466 “ That Unhappy Old
Sinner ” ............................ 466 Ireland in the ’ Twenties 466 New Books and Music . . . 468 Books Received ................. 469 Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’ s Weekly Letter from) ............................471 Kt C /ETERA.............................. 473 Sermons for the Times . . . 474
From The Tablet of Long
A g o ...............................475 London Matriculation
Page
Results ............................ 475 The Apostleship of the Sea 475 Letters to the Ed i t o r :
Abbesses in Parliament 476 Sundays ............................ 476 Mr. Baldwin and the
Next General Election 476 Catholic Work for the
Lepers ............................ 477 The Beda D i n n e r ......... 477 Westminster Diocesan
Schools Inspection . . . 477 Orb is T erbarum : England ............................478
O rb i s Terr arum :
Page
Scotland ................ . . . 479 Wales ............... . . . 479 Ireland ................ . . . 480 Austria ................ . . . 480 Canada ............... . . . 480 China ............... . . . 480 France ............... . . . 480 Poland ............... . . . 480 Spain ............... Switzerland . . . 481 . . . 481 U.S'.A........................... . . . 481 Yugoslavia . . . 482 Obitu ary ................ . . . 482 The W edding R in g . . . 484 Coming E ve n t s . . . . . . 484 So c ia l and P ersonal . . . 484 Chess ................ . . . 484
NOTANDA
The observatory at Castelgandolfo. The Holy Father’s address fo r the inauguration (p. 471).
Italy and Abyssinia. T o -m orrow ’ s pronouncement by the Archbishop o f Westminster (p. 449). Some Tablet Notes and an article (pp. 451, 453).
The Bells o f St. Peter’s. An authoritative denial o f the statement that they swelled Italy’s tocsin last week (pp. 449, 453).
Prosperous Portugal. A pleasant glance at a country where Catholic people have Catholic rulers (p. 454).
Black and White. A possible sequel to the East A frica n War. The unique opportunity o f preachers on Mission Sunday (p. 450).
The Sea Apostolate Congress. Points from the speeches at the Queen’s Hall meeting (p. 475).
Mr. Lansbury resigns. The Tablet recalls a recent letter (p. 451).
In an enlarged issue, The Tablet reviews many new books (pp. 457-468).
NEWS AND NOTES F ROM the Anglican and the Free Church leaders in this country there have come plain words on the war in Abyssinia. The Tablet is authorized to state that His Grace the Archbishop of Westminster may be expected to speak on this grave topic in the course o f a sermon which he is to deliver to-morrow (Sunday) morning in the church of St. Edward the Confessor, Golders Green. For the sake of readers who have not yet visited St. Edward’s, we add that it is a cruciform building, with a battlemented, foursquare tower, standing prominently in the Finchley Road, about five hundred yards north of Golders Green Station. His Grace’s discourse will be reported in next week’s Tablet.
N ew S e r ie s . Voi. CXXXIV. No. 4378.
It does not surprise us that full unanimity is lacking at Geneva on the best way o f penalising a State found guilty of aggression against a fellowmember of the League. The application of any penalties at all is something so new in international life that absolute smoothness of action could not reasonably be expected in a first experiment. Austria and Hungary are now two very poor and very weak States, whose economic life is bound up with Italy’s ; and, in Austria’s case, the very independence of the country is at stake. The framers of the Covenant foresaw such individual difficulties ; and therefore it is foolish to chuckle, as some writers are doing, and to say that Austria’s and Hungary’s declarations are “ bombshells ” which have filled the League’s champions with consternation.
Seeing that the Vatican City is a Sovereign State, and therefore no more a party to the ItaloAbyssinian dispute than is Denmark or Venezuela, English newspaper-readers were astonished to find in The Times last week a statement to the effect that the bells of St. Peter’s had joined in the deafening summons to the adunata, or mass-rally of the Italian nation. We do not sharply blame the Times’ Correspondent for his mistake, because the Eternal City has thousands of bells, and, when sirens were swelling the din, only a campanologist with local experience could distinguish “ t ’other from which.” Further, the bells of the Vatican City and of the other extra-territorial basilicas could not suspend their normal calls to praise and prayer merely because Fascismo was having a grand Afternoon Off. Still, lest any suspicious antiPapist should require proof that the church bells were not included in II Duce’s arrangements, we can add a decisive supplement to Canon 1169. That Canon, which was emphasized in a Decree of the Sacred Council dated March 20, 1931, forbids the “ profane ” or non-ecclesiastical use of church bells “ except from the cause of necessity,” such as fires, “ or by the licence of the Ordinary or because of lawful custom .” The instructions given by II
