THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 168 No. 5034

LONDON OCTOBER 31st, 1936

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK

THE QUESTION OF HOSTAGES ; KEEPING ALIVE THE LONDON COMMITTEE ; THE FRENCH RADICALS ; “ARMED NEUTRALITY” ; THE BELGIAN REXISTS ; THE NEW GERMAN AMBASSADOR ; SOCIAL JUSTICE ; A POPULAR FRONT AT OXFORD LEADING ARTICLES................................. 588

. 585

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT ; FRANCIS BLUNDELL THE CHURCH AND THE COMMON LAW 589

By RICHARD O ’SULLIVAN, K.C. CATHOLICS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA .. 591

By P. CRICHTON-STUART ROME LETTER .......................................... 593 PARIS LETTER 594

THE CHURCH ABROAD .............................. 595 TOWN AND COUNTRY .............................. 598 CHESS AND CROSSWORD.............................. 600 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, I X .............................. 601

By G. K. CHESTERTON BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 606

VOLTAIRE ; HEROIC TALES OF IRELAND ; THE RUSSIAN CHURCH ; CLOISTERS AND CASTLES ; CHALLENGE TO THE COMFORTABLE ; A GUN FOR SALE O B IT U A R IE S ......................................................610 APOSTOLATE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE . 614 THE CALENDAR .......................................... 616

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THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Question of Hostages

The British Government’s appeal for an exchange of hostages in Spain is not being abandoned, but its unsatisfactory reception in Madrid makes it unlikely to achieve much. The Madrid Government’s reply was that it held no hostages, only persons in preventive custody as potential enemies. It has, in any event, to be recognised that the moment of danger for the lives of the many people in prison in Madrid will come when it is obvious that the city is about to fall. The only encouraging achievement is the agreement which has been reached through the International Red Cross for the exchange of hostages in the Basque country round Guipúzcoa. By this agreement, non-combatants, women, children and old men, are being permitted to move over into territory held by the party which they support, and they will enjoy freedom of movement to go from one territory to the other. This agreement is possible because the Basque Nationalists are not imbued with the fierce class hatred of their allies. The diplomatic correspondent of the News Chronicle has not scrupled to print the statement that General Franco has no hostages because he has shot all his prisoners. As the forces under Franco now hold the greater part of Spain, the News Chronicle must either recognise that he enjoys virtually unanimous support in the Spain he holds, or that there are plenty of hostages whom he could seize as potential enemies but has not. Keeping alive the London Committee.

Meanwhile the London Committee continues a precarious but useful existence. It is plainly on the verge of dissolution, now that the Portuguese have virtually recognised General Franco, and withdrawn their ambassador from Madrid. It is generally expected that Germany and Italy are only waiting for Franco to enter Madrid to accord him recognition. The British Government has never lost sight of the great purpose of the London Committee which was not to prevent help of any sort going to either side in Spain, but to minimise the risks of general war by preventing anything in the way of flamboyant and open assistance. The

Committee has not found substance in the charges brought by the Russians against Portugal and Italy, but it is obviously in no position to conduct rapid judicial enquiries. The British Government have made it plain that they do not at all accept the reasoning that the effect of a non-intervention agreement has been to handicap the Madrid Government, which has enjoyed the same facilities as its enemies. The great advantages which General Franco has enjoyed in the military sphere have been pre-eminently advantages due to the attitude of the Spanish army. If the army had been at all evenly divided, Madrid would have commanded much more equipment and much more technical skill. The meetings that have taken place in support of Spain among factory workers in Moscow and other Russian cities have been held to express the view that the war in Spain is not a private matter for the Spanish people, but part of an international class struggle. It is because of that attitude that the Portuguese have never believed that the sovereignty of Portugal would be any sort of protection in the presence of a Red Government in Spain. Russian diplomacy can, on occasion, invoke the doctrines of national sovereignty and the rights of legitimate governments. But these phrases are tactical concessions to bourgeois nations. The only reality in fact recognised is the reality that classes and national boundaries are merely things to be used, or obstacles to be circumvented. The French Radicals to persevere

This aggressive internationalism must be recognised as the chief factor disturbing the peace of Europe today. It makes nonsense of the territorial definitions of aggression now embedded in. the Covenant of the League, for far the most formidable aggression which European governments have to face and meet is the organisation of internal political revolution. This is being increasingly recognised in France, where anti-Communists and anti-Germans both see a growing source of danger and weakness from the internal divisions which the presence of militant Communism has brought about. Frenchmen fear the paradox of a Communist party being restrained by the Soviet Government in the interest