TOE TAB L E T , J u l y Sa, 1150

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA D E I , PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, N o . 5746

FOUNDED IN 1840

L O N D O N , JU LY 8th, 1950

S IXPENCE

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

COLD WAR AND HOT The War for Minds in Progress all over the World

THE ASSAULT ON THE CHILDREN How Communists Seek to Corrupt the Young: a Report from Italy

LONDON’S BOMBED CATHOLIC CHURCHES Their Case for a Higher Priority in Building Licences. By Harold J . Hood

THE TURNING-POINT

The English Saints and Constitutional Freedom. By Richard O ’Sullivan

A HARD BUT VITAL TASK S O much has happened during the fortnight which has passed since the outbreak of the Korean crisis that, whatever may be the future course of events, those tense and fateful two weeks will always be remembered as a turning point in the post-war history of the world. There are many conclusions to be drawn from what has happened, and some of them are certainly gratifying. It is well, for instance, to recall the depressing period of the 1930s, when Hitler and Mussolini were able to exploit to the full the weaknesses of the Western democracies, their moral and military unpreparedness to resist aggression, the inefficiency and slowness of their reactions, and the hesitations of the world’s public opinion. The Korean crisis is a proof that the lessons of the past have been learned and that this time open aggression at least will meet formidable resistance.

of the North Korean troops, but supplies and reinforcements for the North Korean army will still be arriving by land from the friendly Communist hinterland, and even if and when the Americans succeed in pushing the invaders back across the Thirty-Eighth Parallel that hinterland will still provide an ideal ground for the regrouping of the Communist armies and the mounting of new attacks. We have seen a similar situation in Greece, where the war could be brought to an end only when Yugoslavia stopped supporting the rebels, who were thus deprived of their principal bases. If it were not for the split within the Cominform, and if Yugoslavia, together with Albania and Bulgaria, had continued to provide a friendly hinterland for the Greek Communists, the fighting along the northern frontier of Greece might still be going on. Korea and Greece

The extent of the radical changes in the public opinion and the temper of the individual nations can best be assessed in the United States. For a long time there had existed a sharp controversy in America with regard to Far Eastern policy. Nevertheless, when the crisis arose, the democratic process of government appeared to be functioning smoothly and efficiently : there was perfect co-ordination between the work of the State Department and the Department of Defence, and the President’s decisions received an almost unanimous bi-partisan support in both Houses. The American support for the Military Assistance Programme and the European Recovery Programme has been strengthened, the dispute over Formosa and the position of Nationalist China has been resolved. By accepting the Communist challenge, the Americans have assumed the leadership of the democratic world, and they accepted the responsibilities involved wholeheartedly and in an impressively united manner.

The quick and vigorous intervention of the United Nations in the Korean fighting compares favourably with the rather ineffective way in which that organization tried to deal with a somewhat similar situation in Greece. However, the parallel between these two cases of Communist aggression does not go very far : in Korea, the attack was opened by a blatant invasion, executed by a regular army and air force. Because Koreans are fighting Koreans—but only for that one reason—the clash bears certain characteristics of a civil war. On the other hand, both North and South Korea are independent States, internationally recognized, so that North Korea’s aggression of her southern neighbour is an act of war between two States. That is why the Security Council was able to endorse President Truman’s declaration that “Communism has passed from subversion to war,” and to act accordingly.

However, as the first American troops go into action and as the war correspondents’ dispatches tell of the difficult position which the newcomers are facing on the Korean battlefield, it becomes obvious that even without a direct Soviet intervention the Korean “ incident” will very probably develop into a protracted military operation. North Korea has only about half the population of her southern neighbour, but she possesses an army not only double the size of the South Korean army but well equipped and composed of seasoned troops who have been given a thorough Red Army training and who have learned the art of warfare during the years of the Chinese campaign. Furthermore, this army can rely upon a continuous flow of supplies of armaments from the Soviet depots in Vladivostok and the other bases of Far Eastern Russia, and can be steadily reinforced, either by regular units or by large numbers of “volunteers” from Manchuria and China. The Western naval blockade of the Korean shores will probably put an end to further landings

In Greece the fighting always preserved all the essential characteristics of a civil war, even if the Communist side received effective help from Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, and even if many attacks were conducted from the territories of those States. Even when the United Nations Investigation Commission—the predecessor of UNSCOB— issued, on May 27th, 1947, the three volumes of its long report, the findings of the Commission never went so far as to accuse the neighbours of Greece of open aggression, but confined themselves to recommendations that the three States should abstain from helping the rebels, without calling, as the Security Council has now done in the case of Korea, for an intervention on the part of the other member States.

Another reason why the United Nations are now able to act with more determination lies in the abstention of the Russians. In 1947, when the Investigation Commission’s report was published and its recommendations submitted to the Security Council, the Russians applied their veto, so that