THE TABLET, November 14th, 1953 VOL. 202, No. 5921

Published as a Newspaper

HE TABLET WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

NOVEMBER 14th, 1953

N IN EPENCE

P e r s e c u t i o n i n P o l a n d : V : “The Implacable Hatred o f the Communist Camp” D r . A d e n a u e r ’ s T a s k : The Position Two Months after the Elections in Western Germany T h e N e e d f o r N u r s e s : A Question o f Numbers. By Geoffrey Simon P r o b l e m s o f a N e w T o w n : The Church in Crawley. By Fr. Killian, O.F.M.Cap. T h e C a p t i v e M i n d : Intellectual Life Behind the Iron Curtain. By Christopher Hollis A G a r d e n E n c l o s e d : A Note on the Béguines. By Tudor Edwards B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Ascent o f Everest, by Brigadier Sir John Hunt ; The Reason Why, by

Cecil Woodham-Smith ; Poets and Mystics, by E. I. Watkin ; The Weald o f Kent and Sussex, by Sheila Kaye-Smith ; Looking Back in Sussex, by W. E. P. Done ; The Dark Angel, by Mika Waltari ; The Last Captain o f Horse, by Werner Bergengruen ; Brother Potamian, by W. J. Battersby ; Man and Beast, by Phyllis Bottome ; She Always Caught the Post, by Naomi Royde Smith ; The Man with One Head, by Fannie Hurst ; Tertullian's Tract on Prayer, edited by Ernest Evans ; and The Elizabethan Homes, by Margaret Sherman. Reviewed by A. C. F. Beales, Thomas Gilby, O.P., Desmond Schlegel, O.S.B., Reginald Jebb, A. Gordon

Smith, Lancelot C. Sheppard, Isabel Quigly and E. A. Siliem.

Belgium. The Belgians understand th e need fo r a larger unit, but they want it to be one in which G re a t Britain as well as France makes a counterpoise to the Germanic Reich.

THE BRITISH CONTRIBUTION A T the Mansion House Sir W inston Churchill reserved i V t h e high point o f his speech for Europe and his hopes for F ranco-G e rm an unity. He spoke eloquently o f the sterility and worse o f living rooted in inherited a t titudes and memories o f the past. The Mansion House in November has tradition^ ally been a favourite place for the elaboration o f foreign policy, bu t on this occasion Sir W inston Churchill, with a division in th e Commons before him, did n o t go into any detail. I f he had it would have been the occasion to show th a t the British Government do fully take to heart th a t the realization o f these great hopes fo r Europe depends upon them more than upon anyone else.

When Sir W inston Churchill meets the American President and the French Premier in Bermuda, he will find them both wanting the British Government to show itself more interested and excited about these larger ideas for the European future. I t is curious, seeing what great gifts o f presentation the Prime M inister has, th a t the reality o f the British Government’s co-operation should be greater th an the appearance. But such is the position, and it is one th a t it is no t too late to rectify.

In the Belgian Parliam ent M. Spaak has ju s t been urging the Belgian Socialist Party to accept the Defence Community. F o r the Belgians it is simple enough, th a t, if the French and Germans fight, the Germans occupy Belgium. M. Spaak’s main criticism o f the Belgian Government was th a t it has been wasting tim e which it should have been using in preparing the political community inside which the European A rm y can be fitted. The political community is needed, because the Army must be under some political authority. His second criticism was th a t the Belgian Government has neglected its duty o f associating G reat Britain more closely with the whole idea.

I t should come much more easily to the Prime Minister than to the Foreign Secretary, who lives so much more in the ethos and with the outlook o f the Foreign Office. Foreign Offices are the natural custodians o f national sovereignty, speak and write in a deeply rooted trad i tio n o f in te rnational relations, resting on separateness, and have themselves a vested interest in preserving the classical conception o f sovereignty. When these ideas were first seriously mooted, the reaction o f one leading perm anent official was immediately : “W hat happens to the Foreign Office ? Is there to be a European Foreign Office ? ”

The Belgians are well suited to be the spokesmen o f Western Europe in this matter. They had lived under many different Governments—the Empire, Spain, Austria, France, Holland —before British initiative set them up on their own a little more th an a hundred years ago. Belgium and Belgians were p u t on the map, fully guaranteed. But within a century they had had two drastic experiences o f what these guarantees were worth, and i f the Germans had won either o f the wars o f this century it is very im probable th a t they would have quitted

The purposes for which this European unity is needed are vital, but they are no t numerous. They a re roughly parallel to the subjects reserved to governors in many dependencies. In a piecemeal and ra th e r confused pattern , bo th defence and trade in Europe are, in fact, conducted in committees and collectively, bu t so far there has always been a provisional and tem porary character about these committees, as though their life was intended to be for a few years, coping with transitional difficulties. So they fail to satisfy all th a t public