THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 169 No. 5053

LONDON MARCH 13th, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK

WAR AND GOVERNMENT IN SPA IN ; IM PER IA L ITALY ; RAW MATERIALS ; PRE-W AR C O ND IT IO N S ; TH É COM IN G O F SELF-SUFFICIEN CY ; TH E LESSON O F SANCTIONS ; FRENCH RADICALS AND TH E POPULAR FRONT ; FRENCH F INANCE ; TH E NEW LOAN ; TH E HOLD O F PARLIAM ENT ; WHO GOVERNS IN BRITAIN ? ; TA IL -P IEC E

MOULDING THE Y O U N G ......................... THE CATHOLIC ATTITUDE TO WAR

By C H R IS TO PH ER DAWSON

FOREIGN MISSIONS & SOCIAL ACTION A MEDITATION ON LAYMASTERS

By C H R IS T O PH E R H O L L IS THE FAITH IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

By W . J . BLYTON

VIENNA LETTER ROME LETTER

361

THE CHURCH ABROAD

374

364

BOOKS OF THE WEEK ..................... 376

CAPITAL AND EM PLO YM EN T ; M ED ITA T IO N S FOR LENT FROM S T . THOMAS AQUINAS ; TH E MYSTERY O F TH E K INGDOM ; V IC TORIAN ENGLAND ; MR. SLUDGE TH E M ED IU M ; MARSHAL NEY ; HAPPY FAM IL IE S ; MY WAY O F FA ITH

365 LINGARD SO C IE TY ..................................... 383 368 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 384 370 TOWN AND COUNTRY AND ABROAD 386 371 CHESS AND CROSSWORD......................... 390 372 THE CALENDAR ...................................... 391 373 APOSTOLATE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE . . 392

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK War and Government in Spain

Imperial Italy

With the advance from the North-East, the Nationalist attack on Madrid has virtually encircled the city. Only some thirty miles now separate the North-Eastern and South-Eastern attacking armies. But they are thirty miles of country extremely forbidding and difficult for attackers, and easily held under modern conditions of war. The defence continues to enjoy great advantages over the attack. Oviedo still holds out, although it has been necessary to detach considerable bodies of. Nationalist troops to succour it. General Franco has made the announcement, rather surprising, that in his view Asturias is a more formidable obstacle than Catalonia. To foreign observers, the war and its issue naturally overshadows the organization of more than half Spain, upon which the Nationalists are now engaged, but the despatch from Britain of two Board of Trade officials, while not amounting to anything that can be called official recognition, is important. The pressure of facts is compelling the recognition that the Nationalists are a Government controlling a greater territory than their adversaries, and a territory with which trade can be easily and usefully done. The sherry market and other forms of commerce, like the trade in pyrites, in which Great Britain is particularly concerned, are situated in Nationalist territory, and it is not feasible to pretend that the money of the new Government is meaningless because the Government has no accepted international position. There is, meanwhile, a growing and very welcome change of accent in the way the Nationalist cause is spoken of in England. The columns of The Times reflect the change.

General Weygand, now perhaps the most illustrious soldier of France, has been speaking in Paris on the Mediterranean. He has won laurels in North Africa, as well as in Poland and France. He spoke of the Mediterranean as a place where three great countries, Britain, France and Italy, all had enormous interests, but where the interests of France were the greatest. He linked this speech with an eloquent tribute to the great,part played by the French missionaries in bringing the religion and civilisation of Europe to Africa. The historic role of France as the champion of Latin Christianity in the Mohammedan world has tended of late to become but a historical memory. The sort of men who control the Government of France have little understanding of, or feeling for, such a mission. But there are signs that they would revive the tradition if they could, and they are glad when French Catholic activity reflects upon official France a kind of borrowed glow. The moment is, perhaps, propitious because Signor Mussolini, now paying a triumphal visit to Libya, seems to be adopting the tradition of Napoleon and of the British Empire, claiming to be the special friend of Mohammedanism. The Italians have done well in Libya, as in Rhodes, in the quarter-century since they took those places from the Turk, but the excesses which are reputably declared to have followed in Addis Ababa on the attempt on the life of Marshal Graziani plainly call for explanation or correction. Lord Cranborne, in the House of Commons, at the beginning of the week, said that the Foreign Office had information which unhappily bore out some of the