THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW ESTABLISHED 1840

VOL. 169 No. 5060

REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

LONDON MAY 1st, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK . . . 621

THE DESTRUCTION OF GUERNICA ; TERRITORIAL WATERS ; FOREIGN M IN ISTERS’ TRAVELS ; THE VENICE CONVERSATIONS ; THE ITALO-GERMAN COMMON FRONT ; THE NAZIS AND SEVERITY ; THE NEW TAX ; THE CITY OF LONDON ; FIGURES FOR A M IN IM UM WAGE ; FEEDING THE NATION THE NEW SPAIN .......................................... 624 INDUSTRIALISM AND SOCIAL ORDER . . 625

By CHRISTOPHER DAWSON THE UNPOPULAR F R O N T .............................. 626

IV. The Red Death By ARNOLD LUNN EDUCATION IN TH E NEW SPANISH STATE 628 ROME LETTER .......................................... 639 THE BIRTH RATE IN AUSTRIA . . .631

CARDINAL VERDIER’S PRONOUNCE

MENT

THE CHURCH ABROAD .............................. 633 BYZANTINE LITURGY IN LONDON . 635 BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 636

632

WAR IN SPAIN ; SPAIN OVER BRITAIN ; FRANCO MEANS BUSINESS ; LETTERS O F LENIN ; SOREN KIERKEGAARD ; PH ILO SOPHICAL FRAGMENTS ; BIOLOGY ; MAN O F DECEMBER ; THE NET ; THE MYSTERY O F THE CHURCH ; I WOULD BE PRIVATE ; MRS. M ILLER’S AUNT LETTERS TO THE ED IT O R .............................. 642 TOWN, COUNTRY AND ABROAD . 644 THE APOSTOLATE OF THE COUNTRY­

SIDE ................................................................. 649 C H E S S ................................................................. 650

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Destruction of Guernica

Guernica is a small Basque town of great historical interest, but of no military importance. When the first news of its virtual destruction from the air reached this country, the immediate conclusion drawn was that here was an act primarily of terrorism, designed to weaken the resolve of the population of Bilbao to save their city. San Sebastian fell largely because its population was not united in any desire to defend it to the last. The Basque Nationalists are a fiery minority, and they and their Anarchist and Communist allies have continually to find ways of stiffening the military resistance of the general population. So The Times, in its leading article on Guernica, at once wrote that the motive was unquestionably to terrorise the population of Bilbao by showing it what it might expect. That was a plausible explanation, corroborated to some extent by the strong language attributed to General Mola about razing Bilbao to the ground. But there was immediately issued from Nationalist headquarters at Salamanca an absolute denial of responsibility for the destruction of Guernica, with detailed and easily verifiable assertions that there had been no air activity from Vittoria. Journalists were invited to test these statements at the hangars, and so on. The point is not the truth or falsehood of this denial, but the way it shows no sort of desire to turn to account the threat of destruction from the air. If terrorism is the motive, those denials are senseless. The only explanation which seems to make sense of the raid of such a place as Guernica is the one explanation which makes the denials unaccountable. The enemies of Nationalist Spain in Great Britain immediately jumped to the conclusion that here was the savagery they are always expecting. But even they will find it hard to explain why, if the Nationalists are as bloodthirsty as they allege them to be, they should so weaken the effects of their deeds by denying them.

The Basque Government offers the explanation that the raid was a German operation of war, carried out from a German base near San Sebastian, perhaps independently of Nationalist headquarters. The Germans indignantly deny this, and say that when you are dealing with people of the calibre of the Red directors of military operations, the only sound method is not to go by anybody’s statements, but to ask what are the effects of any particular operation, and who gains most by it. It is certainly true that the Basque Government is in unhappy alliance with people to whom the lives of hundreds, or even thousands of Basques, are indifferent, and who know that their best chance now is, at all costs, to rouse outside public opinion in order to secure not less, but more intervention. These matters still await elucidation. Territorial Waters

Meanwhile there has been a welcome measure of response to the continued efforts of the British Government to humanize the struggle. Both sides have made assurances that they will not use poison gas, and Mr. Eden could tell the House of Commons that British prisoners from the International Brigade, in Franco’s hands, are being treated humanely. He had, at the same time, to remind the Opposition that Government aeroplanes had dropped bombs on the open town of Motril on the very day of Guernica. We shall be glad if the British Navy can add to the numbers of refugees it has helped by rescue work at Bilbao. It is unfortunate that so little has been said officially in England about the six-mile territorial limit, which the Spaniards have always claimed. Territorial waters is an elastic phrase ; to some countries it means twelve miles, to others six, to others three. The Opposition have never stopped to ask themselves whether anyone else was entitled to a voice about what limit should be accepted at the moment off Spain. But we must recognize that to Spaniards we seem to have intervened when our battleships warned off Nationalist cruisers inside their six-mile limit. The time has come to grant the same belligerent rights at sea to both sides in the Civil War.