TH E T A B L E T , Ju ly 12th. 1 M
THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW
PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA
VOL. 200, No. 5851
LONDON, JULY 12th, 1952
NINEPENCE
FOUNDED IN 1840
PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER
AMERICANS, EUROPEANS AND COLONIES
The Conflict of Emotion and Reason THE OPPOSITION AT BONN Dangerous Tendencies Among the German Social Democrats
OLYMPIC GAMES, OLD AND NEW A Contrast in Favour of the Old. By Sir Arnold Lunn
ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS A Necessary Field of the Apostolate. By Illtud Evans, O .P .
A GESTURE IN FLORENCE A Christian Mayor’s Enterprise. By Douglas Woodruff
THE MIND OF LEIBNIZ ST. ETHELDREDA’S RESTORED
By F. C. Copleston, S .J .
By Mgr. R. A . Knox
THE ISSUE JOINED AT BONN B OTH at Westminster and at Bonn the future of Germany has been discussed this week, the Bundestag addressing itself for the first time to the two documents which, if ratified, will bring the occupation o f Western Germany to an end and will commit an independent Federal Republic to participation in the Western Defence Community. The opposition to ratification is strong, and there are features o f it which, as is described in an article elsewhere in this issue, must disturb the Western nations no less than they disturb Dr. Adenauer.
Pastor Niemoller last week, on the eve o f these debates, declared th a t if Germany is to survive biologically the Germans must march with the Soviet Union in any future war. He may be a somewhat isolated figure among the principal figures in the Evangelical Church, for most of whom biological survival is not the most im portant form of survival, and to whom a more exalted lead has been given by Bishop Dibelius. Lutherans in general tend to rate the recovery of German national unity higher than the achievement o f West European unity, but they do not misjudge the nature of the Communists, nor regard the future of their Church in the Eastern provinces under Communist rule as complacently as Pastor Niemoller appears to do. Pastor Niemoller has, however, his political followers in the SPD.
opposition, which commanded between 40 and 45 per cent of the votes a t the conferences, understood by a purely “Socialist” policy was the preservation of a number of Soviet enactments of 1945 and 1946 on school organization and social insurance, as well as the domination of a Social Democratic Stadtrat (city, administrator) over appointments to the city staff. It had been ju s t this bureaucratic dictatorship over education, social services and staff policy which had cost the Socialists their absolute majority. Professor Reuter could save his position, as well as the united anti-Communist front of all the democratic parties in Berlin, only by abandoning his former courageous advocacy of the Schuman Plan and the European Defence Community. The quarrel was patched up when he staged a dramatic reconciliation with Herr Neumann, pleading pathetically that the party ought not to make the rejection of the Schuman Plan a matter of “ dogmatic faith.” Significantly, Reuter’s most vocal opponents were the members o f a faction called the Marxistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Marxist Working Group) who, since the city administration had been split between East and West in 1948, have worked assiduously for the re-establishment of Socialist-Communist co-operation. The Note to Moscow
But neutralism as the means towards national unity has brought the Social Democratic opposition into an implacable hostility to the Bonn Agreements, and the story of the party in Berlin may be repeated in the West before next year’s all-im portant elections. In December, 1950, elections for the West Berlin Diet brought severe losses in Social Democratic votes. The Social Democratic Party was still the strongest o f all parties in the new City Council, but it lost its absolute majority over its non-Socialist partners in the coalition. The Chief Burgomaster, Professor Reuter, tried to renew the coalition, but met with furious resistance inside his own party, led by the chairman o f the Berlin party organization, Herr F ranz Neumann, with support from the National Party executive. Since January, 1951, there have been no fewer than four Land party conferences in Berlin, at which the radical opposition has tried to hold Professor Reuter responsible for the electoral defeat, called him a traitor to Socialism, demanded a purely “ Socialist” policy, and attempted to deprive him of his position as Mayor of Berlin. What the
Dr. Adenauer gained some prestige last week by successfully delaying the despatch of the new Western Note to Moscow until he had had his own views fully taken into account. His anxiety to ensure the ratification o f the Bonn Agreement dominates the political scene, and if he appeared to fear weakness in Paris it was partly to make himself seem strong and resolute by contrast. Only a t the last moment were the partners o f his own coalition induced to promise their support, and it was highly im portant for him to appear as an independent figure, and not as the mere seconder o f plans promoted by the French.
I t may be that there will in fact be a Four-Power meeting to discuss the future of Germany, but the German Chancellor has now been given a written assurance that no arrangements will be reached with the Russians “ over the heads of the Germans.” This, indeed, was required by the Contractual Agreements ; and in any case it is hardly probable that Dr. Adenauer ever really feared that all-German elections were
