THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 169 No. 5044

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

LONDON JANUARY 9th, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK . . . . 37

THE PRIMATE OF POLAND

THE VOLUNTEERS IN SPAIN ; THE INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE ; HOW BRITAIN AND FRANCE KEEP STEP : WHERE FRANCE AND BRITAIN PART COMPANY : THE PRICE OF NEUTRALITY ; WHAT BRITISH POLICY NEGLECTS ; THE FOUNDATIONS ; FRENCH OPPORTUNISM ; THE TURK IN SYRIA ; THE GERMAN BISHOPS ; THE QUIET DUTCH FRIENDSHIP WITH ITALY . . 40 A VISIT TO NATIONALIST SPAIN

By ANTHONY CROSSLEY, M.P.

. . 41

RELIGION IN PAPUA

By WILLIAM TEELING

. . 43

AN INTERVIEW THE CHURCH ABROAD ......................... THE NEW BISHOP OF HEXHAM AND

NEWCASTLE................................................. GERMAN BISHOPS’ PASTORAL BOOKS OF THE WEEK .........................

THE KING AND THE IMPERIAL CROWN ; CABINET GOVERNMENT : SPAIN IN REVOLT ; ANNALS OF MAYCHESTER ; ISLANDS OF IRELAND FICTION CHRONICLE .........................

LABORARE EST ORARE

By NOEL MACDONALD WILBY

.. 44

NEW YORK L E T T ER ......................... . . 45 DUBLIN LETTER ......................... . 47 ROME LETTER..................................... . . 47

By GRAHAM GREENE TOWN AND COUNTRY ......................... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR......................... CHESS AND CROSSWORD......................... THE APOSTOLATE OF THE COUNTRY­

SIDE .............................................................

48 50 52 53 54

58 60 62 66

67

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Volunteers in Spain

Two issues dominate the international side of the civil war in Spain. At sea there are vessels belonging to both sides, and claiming to be the navies of legitimate governments, with the right to check and control foreign vessels in or near Spanish waters. The seizure by the Reds of a German steamer, Palos, twenty-three miles out, caused the German Government to retaliate in kind. The position is already almost indistinguishable from war between the Valencia Government and Germany, but while it remains so easy for ships to sail under false colours, there is nothing to be gained by magnifying the international aspects of these encounters between ships at sea. What is much more central is the possibility of really limiting foreign aid on land. The position of the Germans and the Italians has been quite plain since last August ; the help they have given, and are giving to General Franco is intended to offset the help which the revolutionaries have received, less officially, but not less extensively, from France and Russia. Last August the Italians made it clear that they would like to see the effective banning of soldiers from all countries. Supporters of the Nationalists have always known that really effective all-round nonintervention was, and is, greatly in their interest. They began with the advantage of the trained Spanish Army, an advantage particularly marked in the higher and more technical branches. On the basis of the existing Army they have been raising and training large numbers o f recruits, particularly in Castile. Between July and November the Nationalists went steadily forward from success to success. They went slowly because Spain is a large country, and the regular forces were small in comparison with the areas to be occupied and held. Th^great check came at Madrid in November. The International Brigade

It was a check largely due to the inherent difficulties of capturing a very large capital city, but the decisive new factor was the vigorous opposition encountered. That opposition was not the work of Spanish workers’

militia, but of an international brigade. The papers that support the Spanish Reds, like the News Chronicle, are continually writing of the great achievements of this improvised force of foreign volunteers. More of them come from France than from anywhere else, but their commander is a Russian. There are not many Englishmen in its ranks, although the I.L.P. is endeavouring to stimulate recruiting in this country, and the News Chronicle did not scruple to print an appeal to young men to join it, an appeal which it printed, with unconscious humour, side by side with its habitual leading article about the wickedness of Germany and Italy in continuing to intervene in Spain. The immediate problem for the non-intervention committee is to devise effective machinery of control which will stop the extensive recruitment either of well-paid mercenaries, or enthusiasts, for the Valencia Government, and the passage of such recruits across the French frontier. Neither the Italians nor the Germans can be expected to use their effective control of the movements of their own people, if they are to be told that the French Government is officially with them, but lacks the power to prevent private individuals from going to the Spanish war if they please. How Britain and France Keep Step

Great Britain is being continually egged on by the Blum Government and by the Left Wing forces in Britain to concentrate on German and Italian intervention, and to lose sight of the wider horizon. The procedure of our diplomacy is by now familiar ; the Germans or the Italians announce that they consider something, in this case that there shall not be an outpost of the Soviet in the Western Mediterranean, as a vital interest. The French, mindful of their Russian alliance, and preoccupied all the time with the strength of Germany, call on the British to join them in demanding a modification of German policy. Great Britain, ever mindful of the need to allay tension and to keep language moderate, represents the French view in a temperate way ; the matter of what is said offends the Germans, and the