THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 169 No. 5063

LONDON MAY 22nd, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK . . . 725

THE ERA OF REGIONAL PACTS ; FLEXIBILITY OF TREATIES ; THE LOAN-RIDDEN EMPIRE ; A COLONIAL EM P IRE MARKETING BOARD ; FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPEECHES ; THE FRENCH RIGHT WING ; ITALY’S FOREIGN RELATIONS ; EXIT CABALLERO : EGYPT AT GENEVA ; MGR. PIZZARDO’S DEPARTURE ; THE MINING CRISIS ; UNREASONABLE PURPOSES THIS TRUTH OF OUR RELIGION. . 728 THE BASQUE CH ILD REN .............................. 728 THE BENEDICTINES IN SPAIN 729

By E. ALLISON PEERS THE YUGO SLAV CONCORDAT .

By WILLIAM TEELING ENGLISH VERSIONS OF LATIN HYMNS 732

By MGR. RONALD KNOX

731

ROME LETTER .......................................... 733 H.E. THE PAPAL ENVOY’S MESSAGE . . 735 THE CATHOLIC Y O U T H .............................. 735 THE CHURCH ABROAD .............................. 736 BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 738

ST. BERNARD ON THE LOVE O F GOD ; THE STRUCTURE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ; GIORDANO BRUNO ; ULTRA-ROYALISM AND THE FRENCH RESTORATION ; SALUD ! ; AN IR ISHMAN IN SPAIN

O B IT U A R IE S .................................................750 THE SCHOLARLY APPROACH TO

ENGLISH .................................................751 By JO H N O ’CONNOR

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Era of Regional Pacts

The Imperial Conference has heard an exposition, not unduly sombre, from Mr. Eden, on the present state of Europe. These expositions are an important part of modern Imperial Conferences, and a great deal has happened in the last four years. It is difficult to explain to men living far away, and themselves responsible to electorates with a very simple outlook on world politics, European questions with long historical backgrounds and many cross currents. Explanation has to be patient and full, maxima reverentia debet pueris, and every few years the young nations of the Commonwealth have to be gently broken in to the old and gnarled issues of Europe. So far little has been said from the Dominions side, but the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Lyons, has brought up the possibility of a regional understanding in the Far East, designed to restore those good relations between the Empire and Japan which the Japanese declare themselves so anxious to rebuild. When the Anglo-Japanese alliance came to an end on British initiative in 1922, it was ended against the wish of Australia and in deference to North American sentiment, both in the United States and Canada. Now the Australians hope to find a better Asiatic market for their agricultural exports, and a regional understanding might prepare the ground for fruitful trade agreements. Flexibility of Treaties

The conversations which have been going on in London as a result of the presence of important Coronation visitors have tended in the same regional direction. Talk of a Western pact which has been in abeyance for some months is now reviving, while in middle Europe there is an increasing feeling that the relations of the succession States to one another are most likely to prosper without the active offices of the major powers. For the peace of the world regional pacts serve to isolate particular questions and particular areas. The principle of ship-construction, by which designers arrange that a fire in one part shall not become the tragedy of a whole ship on fire is a useful analogy here. But those who are building peace must build with elastic material, never losing sight of the great historical truth that the respective claims of nations, their respective strengths and interests, are continually altering. There is waxing and there is waning, and no good will be done by agreements which do not envisage the gradual increase of power and position by particular nations in particular parts of the world. In the last century Great Britain had the good sense to recognize this in the New World, properly considering that the Monroe Doctrine was not unreasonable, and that as the United States advanced in wealth and population it would expect recognition as pre-eminent in its own part of the globe. To endeavour to fix rigid limits to the rise of Italy in the Mediterranean would be merely to aggravate the always uncomfortable process of growth by endeavouring to fit out active nations in clothes they will soon outgrow. In Central Europe these historical doctrines are repugnant to orthodox Leaguers, who will have plenty to say in the next few days. The Loan-Ridden Empire

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr. Michael Savage, of Australian-Irish origin, and like the Australian Prime Minister, a Catholic, has been introducing a refreshing note of reality into the Imperial discussions that are going on. This year’s meetings are not primarily about trade, but for the Dominions it is allimportant to know how far the movement to revive British agriculture is going to go. The New Zealand Labour Party, of which Mr. Savage is the leader, is a Party of the towns, but it has come to power through the appeal its economic proposals have made in the New Zealand countryside. New Zealand has been built up on loans, and the burden of annual interest payments is something to which Mr. Savage and his colleagues are unwilling to contemplate any additions. The primary producers of the Empire are conspicuous victims of the loan system. They have been committed to fixed payments while they have been left to find the money for those payments by selling in the world’s