November 9, 1935

THE TABLET A W eekly N e w s p a p e r a n d R e v i e w DUM V O B IS G R A TÜ LA M U R A N IM O S E T IA M A D D IM U S D T IN IN C C E P T IS V E S T R I S C O N S T A N T E R M A N EA T IS

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

V o l . 166. No. 4983. L o n d o n , N o v em b e r 9, 1935.

S i x p e n c e .

R eg is t e r e d at th e General P ost Of f i c e as a New s pa p e r .

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New s and No t e s ...................5 89 The W ay to P e a c e ...................593 Libels on Communities . . . 594 Next Thursday ................. 595 The General Election : Some Catholic Candidates . . . 595 R e v ie w s : The F irs t Three Centuries 596 The Problem of Pain . . . 596 The Enigma of the Temple 597 Twenty Years After . . . 597 New Books and Music . . . 598 Books Received ................. 598 Sermons for the Times— LX XVI ............................ 599

CONTENTS

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Birmingham’s Liturgical Week ............................ 600 Women Under the British F l a g ....................................... 602 L e t t e r s to t h e E d i t o r : Press Defence ................. 60S The Plainchant Festival 603 The Catholic Guild of Israel ............................ 603 Correspondence : Rome (Our Own Corre­ spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ............................ 605 Ob itu a ry ...............................6 07

W i l l s

Page .............. 607 E t C/e t era . . . 608 From The Tablet Ago .............. of Long 609 E p is c o p a l E ngagements 609 Orbis Terrarum: England 610 Scotland 611 Ireland 611 Albania 611 Austria 611 Belgium 612 Burma 612 Czechoslovakia 612 France 612

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Orbts T errarum (Gontd.) : Germany ............................ 612 Indochina 612 I t a l y ....................................... 612 Lithuania ............................ 614 Malta ............................ 614 Mexico ............................ 614 Poland ............................ 614 Spain ............................ 614 Switzerland 614 Coming Events ................. 616 The Roswitha Players . . . 616 The Bishops a t the Mansion House ............................ 616 Soc ia l and P ersonal . . . 616 Ch e s s ....................................... 616

NOTANDA A Way to Peace? In an article which he admits to he tentative a Tablet leader-writer takes up a hint from Rome (p. 593).

Britain’s General Election. Its unusual importance. Some Catholic candidatures (p. 595).

“ Libels on Communities ” once more. Mr. Langdon’s promising Committee (p. 594).

The Liturgical Week in Birmingham. An observer’s account of the last three days (p. 600). The Archbishop’s sermon (p. 599).

Death of Maynooth’s President. Dr. MacCaffrey’s career as educationist and historian (P-611).

Where “ marriage is by purchase and female children are welcome as marketable commodities.” A bad state of things in some territories under the British flag (p. 602).

NEWS AND NOTES \ FEW words of explanation must introduce our leading article, entitled " The Way to Peace,” which follows this week’s “ News and Notes.” I t lacks the coherence with which our writings on current politics are usually credited ; for the simple reason th a t the situation is itself in­ coherent. That earnest efforts are being made towards Peace in East Africa, as against the callous d ic tum ," I t ’s got to be fought to a finish,” is certain ; but, for the moment, we see the peace-makers velut arbores ambulantes.

Every regular reader of The Tablet knows th a t it is our frequent practice to state where our opponents’ cases, fully set forth in their own words, can be found. Only a few weeks ago, we facilitated access to a b itter book containing violent attacks upon ourselves. But we cannot tell the British

N ew S e r ie s . Voi. CXXXIV. N o . 4382.

public where to seek the two folio brochures in which the Italian Government elaborates its grievances against Abyssinia ; because no publisher’s name is given on the title-pages or covers. These folios, in English, were sent to our Editor at his private residence, in a large envelope which was evidently of official origin, but with no precise indication of their provenance. The first of them is entitled Memorandum o f the Italian Government on the Situation in Abyssinia. The second is a collection of photographs illustrating atrocities ; but these are not convincing, because many of the men shown in them are too obviously posing for the camera, and in one case the oppressed Etliiop seems to be grinning pleasantly a t the Italian photographer. We admit, however, th a t terrible statements are made in the letterpress and th a t some of the most grievous are the testimonies of English travellers. Respected men of science from various European countries are also among the witnesses. For example, we read on the authority of Sir Arnold Hodson, whose book appeared in London only eight years ago, th a t devastation has taken place in the Burji area and elsewhere. I t is said th a t the Burji population has fallen from 200,000 in 1895 to 15,000 a t the present time ; and the Kaffa, which, in the time of Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja (4*1889), had 1,500,000 inhabitants, now has only 20,000.

A large part of the Italian Memorandum aims at showing th a t raids across the frontiers of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland have been so many and so serious as to necessitate the heavy fall of Ita ly ’s mailed fist. After spending some hours in perusing more than a hundred large pages of the Memoran­ dum, we reach two conclusions. First, as this is presumably the story about Abyssinia which has been steadily pumped into the minds of the Duce’s people, we cannot blame the Italian masses, as distinguished from their better-informed leaders, for believing th a t Ita ly is fighting a Holy War against cruel barbarians who will never change