May 23, 1936

THE TABLET

A Weekly y Newspaper and Review

V ol. 167 . N o . 5 0 1 1 .

L ondon, M ay 2 3 , 1936

RUBI(STEEEDAT Till GENERAL POST OFFICE AS ANEWSPAPER.

Sixpence

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

Page

Page

THE K IN G ’S GRACE .............. .............. 648 PARIS LETTER ........................ .............. 655 THE MONSTER ........................ .............. 648 IRISH LETTER ........................ ............. 656 CARDINAL LEPICIER .............. .............. 649 CHURCH IN THE WORLD ... .............. 657 A PORT IN THE DESERT ... .............. 652 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ... .............. 659

(By H ilaire Belloc)

THE NEW B O O K S ........................ .............. 662

THE N EW EDUCATION BILL .............. 653 LES SAINTES MARIES DE LA MER ... 670

('By The A rchbishop of Birmingham)

THE CALENDAR ........................ .............. 672

WEEK BY WEEK

QUESTIO N S FOR OURSELVES

f I 1H E German Government is taking its time preparing its answer to what it termed the polite but complicated questionnaire addressed to it by the British Government. The German press has been less complimentary because with whatever skill and good breeding the questions have been framed, their subject-matter prevents them from being the kind o f questions which any country likes to be singled out and invited to answer. Germany is asked i f she considers herself now in a position to negotiate genuine treaties; whether we may take it that with the reoccupation o f the Rhineland, the last o f the forced limitations o f sovereignty has been removed. German diplomacy is well known to favour the method o f the accomplished fact, which shifts all the weight o f delay and discussion on to the other side o f the issue. T o seek to bring about a change by consent is to face endless delays, some due to opposition but others caused by the difficulty o f securing the consent o f all the parties. Germany might still be negotiating fo r a peaceable reoccupation o f the Rhineland, but by acting first she has secured the transference o f all the delay and hesitation into the camp o f those who are faced with the accomplished fact. It must be frankly recognized that the more parties to an agreement there have to be, the greater is the temptation to act first. Particular questions were addressed to Germany as to whether she can include Soviet Russia in her non-aggression peace compacts. Germany has hitherto always declined to make a non-aggression pact with Russia, a fact which ought to be remembered by people who consider that the whole o f German diplomacy is directed to an early war, because, by the imputed doctrine, any agreement calculated to deceive is to be regarded as a military acquisition.

N ew S e r ie s . Vol. CXXXV. No. 4410.

This matter o f the questionnaire to Germany is one where the procedure might usefully be widened. What the Germans have resented is being singled out fo r cross-examination as though they were a quite special case needing particularly careful thought. They belong to the group o f powers who had to accept a settlement, seventeen years ago, under duress, and who have been continually manoeuvring for changes. I f Britain and France, the victors in the war, have been in an easier position, it is because they have only had to keep their own settlement. Even so, and within the framework o f the League o f Nations Covenant and the various supporting treaties, there has been only too much room fo r doubt and uncertainty. Our long doubts last summer about the French attitude towards Italy are matched to-day by French uncertainties about our attitude to Germany. It would be a good thing if every country filled up a questionnaire to clear up its own mind as well as to illuminate the rest o f the world about its intentions. W e are asking Germany i f she is willing to promise not to attack the Soviet, and we should like a more categorical answer than we are likely to receive. But what is our own answer to the question whether, if Germany did attack Russia, this country would go to war, would fight not by means o f resolutions or sanctions, but would raise a large army and would engage in the perils o f air warfare with the Germans? This is the sort o f obligation which there is much reason to fear may be accepted in lip service to the doctrine o f which the Russians are at the moment the high priests, that peace is indivisible. It sounds less attractive when stated as “ war is indivisible,” but that is the juster way o f putting the contention to-day. The idea o f the indivisibility o f peace was that war need never break out i f enough countries made it really plain what they would do if it did. That conception to-day has given place to a more limited demand fo r an alliance under the forms o f the League, by which Britain,