THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

VOL. 185 No. 5464

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

LONDON, JANUARY 27th, 1945

SIXPENCE ^ ——— ——

THE POLISH HOME ARMY AND THE RED ARMY

The Grim Process o f Subjugation to Lublin THE FUTURE OF YUGOSLAVIA King Peter’s Decision and the Background to it

THE BELGIAN ARDENNES

By Emile Cammaerts

MARY WARD: 1645-1945

By James Brodrick, S .J . '

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Reich at Bay

I t is th e great military weakness o f the Germans that, having involved themselves in sim ultaneous campaigns East and West, their F iih rer having gratuitously made war on the Russians and the Americans, they now find their main industrial areas, the R uh r and Silesia, in the most exposed parts o f the coming fronts. The Russians sweep on through Poland in accordance with the new technique which no longer waits until all obstacles and strong points have been reduced one by one. So last summer the Anglo-American forces were content to leave German garrisons in various French ports. The Russian offensive is ahead o f the Western offensive. “ Marshal S ta lin ,” said Mr. Churchill, “ prefers to be ahead of, rath e r th an behind his time. ’’ Von R un s te d t’s offensive in the West was designed to throw the jo in t tim etable out, and it has interposed delays in the West which the particular severity o f the winter in Holland increase. But we hope th a t there will be a synchronization, not merely as a military m a tte r, but because obviously jo in t work crowned with success in the field is a much better background for the difficult political discussions which the heads o f the main Allied Governments now have to take up. I t is perfectly well known to all o f them how closely concerted the military campaign has been, and how much E ast and West owe to each o ther, no t merely in the relief o f strain, but in the equipm ent o f the Eastern armies. But it is obviously desirable th a t the advance in to Germany shall be an advance o f all the Allies, and th a t the military prologue to jo in t occupation shall be jo in t victories.

under the enemy. The controversy was over the facts in Greece. They are very few in this country who still support ELAS while accepting the evidence th a t the ELAS programme really was, as a m a tte r o f history, what Mr. Churchill described it as being. But the Labour Party suffers from too many people whose whole political life is consumed with such an antipathy to Toryism th a t any movement which has the tactical good sense to set out by proclaim ing itself a working-class movement will enjoy their instinctive and impetuous support, and only very painfully and against the grain will th a t support then be modified and withdrawn. Mr. Lloyd George, proclaim ing himself as always lined up against the priests and th e landlords, and seeing Europe in term s o f Wales, is the archetype.

This is a standing invitation to the to ta lita rian revolutionaries o f Central Europe to seek to confuse and divide British and American opinion, which would be quite solid against them i f it understood th a t their real purpose was above all things to prevent im partial and internationally-supervised elections, in which their Communist parties would fare extremely badly. We shall have, with the United States, to fight for this principle. N o p a r t o f Mr. Churchill’s speech was less felicitous than his assurance a t the close th a t “ the Union Jack o f freedom will for ever fly from the white cliffs o f Dover. ’ ’ He presumably mentioned Dover as the point most visible from the continent, and the image was symbolical, th a t we would always uphold the conceptions which we have worked out and tried and found good.

Mr. Churchill last week gave an impressive warning that history is full o f the records o f great coalitions which have fallen ap a r t in the very moment o f victory, th rough profound divergences brought to a head in the moment o f success. On the Western side every effort will be made to do much more th an secure the sm ooth functioning o f the military alliance to the end. We want the subsequent settlem ent to be an agreed settlement, not an increasingly open tug o f war. We can claim to have given abundant proofs th a t we are steadfast Allies, and th a t the Russian victories, a t first defensive and now offensive, would never have been possible w ithout the full and large support o f the West. I f there are big difficulties inside the Alliance today, they are no t o f our making o r willing, and they can be lessened in p roportion as the Soviet will pursue an agreed and not a lone policy in Eastern Europe. But meanwhile the extraordinary position is th a t ra th e r more news came out o f Rumania and Bulgaria before they entered th e o rb it o f the G rand Alliance. We cannot believe th a t this secrecy is wholesome o r desirable. The Anglo-American Responsibility

Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden in the House o f Commons last week b o th made i t very plain th a t it is no t British policy to do more th an secure th a t the liberated countries really are liberated, th a t the elections are genuine elections, and th a t there is no “ swindle-democracy.” There is such a basic agreement in G reat Britain on all this th a t it is a tragedy th a t ' n ational unity should ever be imperilled between men all o f whom w an t to see juSt the same kind o f political freedom made a reality fo r our Allies who have suffered occupation

But we have to do much more th an live our own lives in our own way, although th a t in itself needs constant vigilance. We have to take a leading p a r t in creating in te rnational institutions and in seeing th a t they are founded on principles to which we can subscribe w ithout contradicting abroad what is our pride a t home. We cannot legislate for the world, but we can seek out and strengthen those who share our deepest convictions, and never for a moment contemplate abandoning them for the very tem porary favours o f those between whom and ourselves no such real bonds exist. A purely military approach is sometimes inevitable, but i t can be the most short-sighted o f all approaches, where what may be called by contrast the moral approach is, in fact, the only good statesm anship. “ The Times” on ELAS

The Times, in ingenuous dismay a t the overwhelming enthusiasm aroused by the Prime M in is te r’s denunciation o f it, pretended next day th a t “ the trouble appears to have begun” with a report telegraphed by the newspaper correspondents about the alleged order to arrest the EAM and ELAS leaders. The complaints against The Times correspondent by no means began, o r even appeared to begin, with this comparatively m inor peccadillo o f a la ter day. Yet the Prime M in is te r’s complaint was no t primarily against the correspondents o f newspapers, but against their leader-writers. The complaint is that, long before the G reek outbreak, The Times had in prejudice, in its most literal sense o f pre-judgment, made up its m ind to support what it itself called ‘ ‘ the most tu rbulent elem ents,” and th a t i t then rushed to their support. On December 5th it to ld its readers th a t “ i t was a m isfortune