THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 169 No. 5064

LONDON MAY 29th, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK . . .761

PRISONERS OF THE NATIONALISTS ; OR. SCHACHT IN PARIS ; THE DUTCH ELECTIONS ; INDUSTRY IN THE U.S.A. ; HOMEWORK ; RUSSIAN, AUSTRIAN AND FRENCH DIPLOMACY ; THE FRENCH EXHIBITION MR. BALDWIN’S DEPARTURE . 764 THE SALESIANS AND SPANISH EDUCA­

TION ................................................................. 765 By PROFESSOR E. ALLISON PEERS YUGO-SLAV1A AND ITALY .766

By WILLIAM TEELING SPANISH, DUBLIN. PARIS, AND ROME

LETTERS ..................................... 768-771 THE MARTYRS OF THE COMMUNE . 772

By The REV. ANDREW BECK A WALSINGHAM CENTENARY

By H. M. GILLETT

. 773

THE CHURCH ABROAD ......................... 774 BOOKS OF THE WEEK ......................... 776

THE WRITINGS OF A. J. PENTY ; FOUR GENERATIONS OF OUR ROYAL FAMILY ; CLIFFORD OF THE CABAL ; PEASANT AND PRINCE ; ST. AUGUSTINE AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL THE SCHOOL AND THE HOME . . . 780

By The REV. J . E. FLYNN CATHOLICS AND EUROPEAN POLITICAL

DEVELOPMENT

782

By The VERY REV. HILARY CARPENTER, O.P. TOWN AND COUNTRY .............................. 784 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 786 O B IT U A R IE S ......................................................787 THE ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER’S

TRINITY PASTORAL .............................. 790

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK Prisoners of the Nationalists

The repatriation by General Franco of a number of prisoners, some of them British, captured from the International Brigade, and the Basque reprieves for the German airmen, are very welcome signs of a growing tendency for the Spanish Civil War to abate its first fierceness. Whether the larger schemes now being tentatively put forward by the British Government to secure the withdrawal of volunteers have any prospects of success remains as doubtful as ever. When this proposal was first mooted, some months ago, it was made plain enough from Valencia that all volunteers for Red Spain could be immediately nationalized and given Spanish passports. Many of them are refugees who went to Spain after a temporary and uneasy sojourn in Paris, and who hope to remain. On the Nationalist side there is membership of the Spanish Foreign Legion, although that is primarily a Spanish corps. But the effective contributions of the outside powers are not, and never have been, in the numbers of infantry. What they have supplied has been technical skill and both the materials and the trained men for various mechanized branches. In this respect the Valencia Government has been well served by Russian and French support, particularly with aeroplanes, and although the old pretence is kept up on platforms in England about the lawful Government not being allowed to buy weapons, the weapons have been supplied in abundance. What has been lacking in Valencia has been something no foreigners can supply—the ability to inspire and direct attacking armies. Saragossa has been repeatedly bombed, but there has been no serious attempt to take it. The Nationalists have had the initiative all through and the main lesson of the war has accordingly been learned at their expense. It is the comparative ease with which, given a sufficiency of machine guns, cunningly placed with earth defences, the defence can hold up the attack. For Europe, and particularly for central Europe, this is reassuring. For it is a great discouragement to military advisers of Governments who advocate short and sharp campaigns.

In order not to disturb prospects for a withdrawal of volunteers the new Foreign Minister of the Valencia Government has been persuaded to move more cautiously in his denunciations at Geneva of the Germans and the Italians. It is recognized that ex parte denunciations of two powers, one of whom is not a member of the League at all, would either fall disappointingly flat or would create a state of feeling from which agreed action could hardly result. Dr. Schacht in Paris

The arrival of Dr. Schacht in Paris to open the German Pavilion in the Paris Exhibition has led to comment of some interest. Dr. Schacht firmly denied the suggestion, always recurring, that he is hoping for a loan. His great point is that the seven per cent which Germany is expected to pay on the Dawes and Young Loans is excessive and must be reduced. He has no desire to see an increase of this annually expected tribute. What he does desire to see is a different attitude to Germany’s colonial requirements. Foreign exchange lies at the root of Germany’s embarrassments. It is needed to pay for all sorts of raw materials not produced in Germany. It is needed for interest payments. It can only be obtained by the sale of German goods in markets which have, in the last few years, been increasingly closed against them. The idea that there is foreign exchange in the possession of various Catholic bodies with houses in many countries is constantly attributed to the Nazi Government as one explanation of their campaign against the Church. But there are no such attachable funds which could not be much more simply and directly taken over in exchange for internal securities.

Dr. Schacht was unusually blunt in his declaration that the peace of Europe depends on the attitude taken