THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 170 No. 5073

LONDON JULY 31sf, 1937

SIXPENCE

PRINCIPAL

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK

. . 145

THE MADRID OFFENSIVE ; THE OVERDUE RECOGNITION OF NATIONALIST SPAIN ; REBUILDING THE STRESA FRONT ; THE BRITISH PAUSE ; GOLD FOR GERMANY ; LABOUR AND DEFENCE ; A DEMOCRATIC PARTY ? ; AN OUTRAGE IN ULSTER : THE AIMS OF THE CHAUTEMPS’ GOVERNMENT ; THE JAPANESE INVASION ; ONE BIG MINERS’ UNION ? ; NEW PROBLEMS FOR THE INDUSTRY ; THE SKILL AND COURAGE THAT IS PERISHING CATHOLICS AND FINANCE 148 THE UNTIED FRONT ...............................149

By R. A. KNOX YUGOSLAVIA ACCEPTS THE CON­

CORDAT ...................................................... 151 THE ORTHODOX CHURCHES OF YUGO­

SLAVIA ...................................................... 152 By DONALD ATTWATER

CONTENTS

SPANISH FEVER

By ARNOLD LUNN DUBLIN LETTER

ROME LETTER

TALKING AT RANDOM

By D.W. BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 158

153

155

156

157

WISDOM AND IMMORTALITY ; A NEW POET ; THE SPANISH COCKPIT ; A COLONIAL POSTMASTER GENERAL’S REMINISCENCES ; THE FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA ; ITALY, 1914-1918 THE CHURCH ABROAD 164 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 167 TOWN AND COUNTRY .............................. 170 THE APOSTOLATE OF THE COUNTRY­

SIDE ; OBITUARIES ; THE CALENDAR 172

T H E W O R L D W E E K B Y W E E K The Madrid Offensive

There is a lull in both the military operations in Spain, and the diplomatic manœuvres in London. It follows a great deal of inconclusive activity in both spheres, and is the prelude to more decisive steps. In Spain, the Madrid offensive, like so many of the offensives of the war, spent itself after a few days. It never reached Naval Carnero, where it could have seriously interfered with the Nationalist communications. The Nationalists declare that it is the equivalent of a grave defeat for their foes, that political circumstances compelled the Valencia Government to order an offensive, and that the Nationalists were well satisfied to get the enemy away from the streets and houses of the capital, and that the hundred square miles has been bought at a terrible price. But it is much for Valencia to have shown any power of offensive operations at all. Their chief hope today lies in France, where their story is that they have a t last made a people’s army, comparable to the great armies made by Carnot, which saved the French Revolution. All they want, they maintain, is a large and steady supply of weapons. The Overdue Recognition of Nationalist Spain

We trust it is true that the Government intend, whatever the fate of the Non-Intervention Committee proposals, to recognize General Franco as soon as they conveniently can. This is a matter of the merest common sense. He and his Government represent fourteen million Spaniards and nearly two-thirds of Spain, with whom it is both politically and economically important for Great Britain to trade. It will be our own fault if the Nationalists conclude special agreements with other countries because, for exigencies of domestic politics, the British Government officially pretends they have no existence, and that its ambassador only knows Mr. Negrin and his Cabinet. In fact, large British interests in Spain are very much better off in Nationalist territory, even with the exchange difficulties, than in the other part of Spain, where British, like other foreign companies, have been the victims of appropriation and confiscation by Syndicalists. This is particularly true •of industrial concerns in Barcelona. The list of such companies is in itself a commentary on the way Spain was dependent for its public utilities on foreign capital. So the provinces of Valencia and Castellón receive their electricity from a company whose shares were nearly all held in Belgium. These are anomalies little likely to recur. Rebuilding the Stresa Front

The reactions in Rome to the conversation lasting one-and-a-half hours, which the Italian Ambassador had on Monday with Mr. Neville Chamberlain, are couched in terms of cautious optimism. Mr. Chamberlain is very much more popular in Italy than Mr. Eden, because he was the first important Minister to denounce sanctions, which he did with the well-known epithet “ Midsummer madness.”

In spite of the hope of the News Chronicle that the hour-and-a-half was spent talking about the weather, there is no doubt that the occasion was of great importance as a step towards healing the rift which has unhappily divided two countries whose friendship is of such obvious mutual advantage. It is particularly important to make it clear that even should the British plan to save Non-Intervention break down, such a breakdown ought not to impair Anglo-ltalian relations in the Mediterranean. If Non-Intervention breaks down, it will do so because of the very strained relations between Italy and the France of the Popular Front. But there are many signs that M. Chautemps’ Government recognizes that it has not at all the same sort of vital interest in a victory for Valencia that the Italians have in preventing such a victory. The interest of France is to secure not merely French communications with North Africa, but something more important at the moment, the maintenance of national unity in France itself. This unity would be impelled if the extreme Left were supplied with a powerful base just South of the French frontier, for it is the South of France that is the stronghold of revolutionary fervour. If the French could choose, they would like to see in Spain a rather weak Left Wing Government, or failing that, they would like to see the volunteers withdrawn and the two parties in Spain waging, in the Spanish fashion, a desultory and