THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 169 No. 5061

LONDON MAY 8th, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK . . . 657

THE ’BUS STRIKE ; THE IRRESPONSIBILITY OF PUBLIC OPIN IO N ; GUERNICA AND THE FRENCH PRESS : VERDICTS BEFORE INQUIRY ; PROPAGANDA FOR GENEVA ; ADDING UP SPANISH GOVERNMENT CLAIMS ; NON-INTERVENTION AND IMPARTIALITY ; THE PREMIER AND HARWORTH ; CORPORATIVISM ON THE ROADS ; THE MINISTRY O F LABOUR ON STRIKES ; THE BULGE IN THE STATISTICS ; THE DISTRESSED AREAS ARE STILL DISTRESSED ; THE PAPAL M ISSION TO THE CORONATION THE MONARCHY .......................................... 660 THE DELEGATION FROM THE HOLY

S E E ................................................................. 661 THE DIVISIONS AMONG THE BASQUES 661 THE UNPOPULAR FRONT.............................. 663

V. The Charges Against the Nationalist Troops By ARNOLD LUNN CATHOLICS AND AMERICAN POLITICS 664

By CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS

CONTENTS

TERESA HIGGINSON .............................. 665

By Dr. F. M. R. WALSHE SPANISH LETTER .......................................... 666 DUBLIN LETTER .......................................... 667 ROME LETTER .......................................... 668 THE CHURCH ABROAD .............................. 670 BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 672

THINGS PAST REDRESS ; ELIZABETH FRY ; M ICHAEL O CLEIRIGH AND H IS ASSOCIATES ; MOTHER MARGARET MOSTYN ; A VENTURE O F FAITH ; I BEUEVE THE ELUSIVE MONSTER OF LOCH NESS 679

By Abbot HUNTER BLAIR TOWN AND COUNTRY .............................. 680 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.............................. 682 THE ROYAL ACADEMY .............................. 686 O B IT U A R IE S ......................................................687

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The ’Bus Strike

The ’bus strike is the kind of event which is greatly magnified and misunderstood abroad, like the famous naval troubles on Invergordon in 1931. It seems to us an industrial dispute in which the issue is singularly clear. It is a claim to have half-an-hour of meal time included in the seven-and-a-half hour working day, which will put the ’bus drivers in a position already enjoyed by railwaymen and many other transport workers. Ordinarily when industrial disputes arise over conditions of work, the general public has little opportunity of judging what those conditions are really like in mines or factories. In this particular case the circumstances are only too well known to everybody. The increasing congestion and unpleasantness of the London streets is something which has become more marked with every year, and no one can feel surprised when they hear that the drivers of the new ’buses, carrying far more people than the old, at a much greater rate, work under a singularly exhausting nervous strain. Twelve years ago Lord Dawson of Penn was brought into consultation on this issue, and the question of health came up in an acute form in 1928, when the speed of ’buses went up from twelve miles per hour to twenty. The only objection from the London Passenger Transport Board is that it is financially unable to face the loss involved in this reduction of working time. The Board, when it received its privileged position, had to commit itself to paying a certain rate of interest on the capital, in particular to pay 5 | per cent to its “ C ” shareholders once every three years. It can pay them 4 per cent, but it will not be able to pay the 5 | per cent if it meets the ’busmen’s demands. That 4 per cent and that 5 | per cent go back to a time when interest rates were higher than they are today, and a very practical suggestion is that the Government should buy out the shareholders with money which it could raise at 3 per cent which would leave an adequate margin for the amount of working conditions. A Friendly Society’s figures of mortality and sickness leave unhappily no doubt that driving the ’buses of London is a very dangerous trade. Only one In ten of those who follow it live to be sixty-five, and at forty-six men have to leave off generally with impaired health. There could hardly be a clearer issue, a more concrete illustration of the general principles about the representative rights of Labour and Capital enunciated in the Papal Encyclicals when the choice is between the rate of interest and conditions destructive of health and life. The Irresponsibility of Public Opinion

The gravest danger to good relations comes from journalistic irresponsibility. These vital affairs of Europe are looked at as providing good stories of a kind palatable to the public for whom the paper caters, and their sensational dress is really an admission of how little sustained interest the mass of the population takes. The moment the ’bus strike began it swept aside the Spanish Civil War into contracted inside spaces, and that will always be the case, and foreigners should bear it in mind that however loudly things may be said, the interest taken in the affairs of Europe is in fact extremely slight. Guernica and the French Press

Moderate opinion in France is strongly in support of non-intervention, and it is principally from the point of view of possible international complications that the events in Spain are seen. The flood of emotion in this country concerned with the running of the blockade by food-ships, with the evacuation of non-combatants from Bilbao, and with the alleged destruction of Guernica, is therefore causing some alarm. It is pointed out that no judgment can be passed on what has happened at Guernica before reliable witnesses have been reported by reliable inquirers, and the “ sensational stories” which have been allowed to appear in English newspapers are discounted in the French Press, which is under no illusions as to the readiness of the Opposition to use them as “ pretexts to incite the Government to reply energetically.” The suggestions of Mr. Atlee and other Opposition members that a note should be sent to Herr Hitler, as well as to General Franco, protesting against the bombardment of open towns, “ must be rejected,” says the Temps, “ because of the