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THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER VOL. 172 No. 5122 LONDON JULY 9th, 1938 SIXPENCE IN THIS ISSUE RELIGION IN RURAL FRANCE Impressions on a Tour. By Pierre Janelle THE MYSTICS OF SPAIN By E. Allison Peers ON AMERICAN HOSPITALITY By Christopher Hollis INTERNATIONAL MORALITY An Editorial on the Archbishop of York’s Manifesto DISTRACTIONS THE POETRY OF W. H. AUDEN By Hilaire Belloc By D. A. Traversi Full List o f Contents on page 36. T H E W O R L D W E E K B Y W E E K Progress in Spain The past few days have seen progress in two directions, both improving the immediate outlook. The NonIntervention Committee, under the chairmanship of Lord Halifax, held the most successful of its meetings. The Soviet representative, M. Kagan, contented himself with some modification of the formula governing maritime contro l ; otherwise all the Powers have accepted the details of the scheme, and it only remains for Salamanca and Barcelona to accept in detail what they have already accepted in principle. Even so, two or three months will be needed before the committee’s officials arrive in Spain and the work of repatriating foreign participants begins. As soon as it has begun an increasingly anomalous position will be rectified with the formal recognition of belligerent status. The time is growing short, and the present moment, and the next few weeks, offer the least favourable occasions for desperate attempts by the Negrin Government to attempt to save themselves by widening the area of conflict. With a slightly different Government in France it is probable that some desperate stroke would be attempted. For M. Blum and his friend, M. Salamon Grumbach, have been testifying, as in Le Populaire, the French Socialist paper which M. Blum controls, how real is the threat from Barcelona to bombard the great cities of Italy : Genoa, Milan, Turin and Rome itself. We are approaching the last weeks in which the Nationalist element in Spain can be represented abroad as something which would quickly collapse without the Italians and the Germans. Already the Italian contingents are being re-formed with a view to their repatriation. There is also a time limit for Barcelona tactics in the military advance of the Nationalists, who are now at the gates of Sagunto. The troops of Generals Aranda and Valino, the brigades of Castille and Galicia, are advancing methodically. The bulletins ■of General Miaja, commander-in-chief on the other side, still try to represent the campaign as a foreign invasion which must therefore be resisted, a claim which is ironical enough from Miaja, who knows, as well as any man, how completely Madrid, where he commanded for so long, owed its military defence to foreign assistance. General Miaja’s bulletins disclose a good deal of the increasingly desperate state of his forces who are yet, he says, contesting the ground foot by foot. Valencia is now some twenty miles from the fighting line. It is not nearly so formidable in its natural setting and fortifications as was the great industrial stronghold of Bilbao, and the Nationalists took Bilbao a year ago, when they were still fighting on two fronts. After Valencia there will only remain some four minor harbours to connect Madrid with the outer world. It is obviously well understood in Salamanca that time is so strongly on the side of the Nationalists that it is not worth while jeopardizing the outlook, and in particular the British plan, by providing bombing incidents of a kind convenient for the French and British Left Wing parties. The Specialists Where trouble is likely to come is if the NonIntervention plan is used not merely to secure military withdrawals but to detach foreign tentacles, in the form of specialists and technical services, from the life of Spain. On both sides such specialists have played an important part. Their presence has been more easily concealed at Barcelona by the great readiness there to grant Spanish citizenship to convenient individuals. The active participation of the Third International has all through been largely camouflaged, and an attempt will undoubtedly be made to cover a large number of foreign volunteers whose services are valuable by saying that they are Spanish citizens. These tactics are completely alien to the strong nationalism of both Spaniards and the foreigners under General Franco.

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THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

VOL. 172 No. 5122

LONDON JULY 9th, 1938

SIXPENCE

IN THIS ISSUE

RELIGION IN RURAL FRANCE

Impressions on a Tour. By Pierre Janelle THE MYSTICS OF SPAIN

By E. Allison Peers

ON AMERICAN HOSPITALITY

By Christopher Hollis

INTERNATIONAL MORALITY

An Editorial on the Archbishop of York’s Manifesto

DISTRACTIONS THE POETRY OF W. H. AUDEN

By Hilaire Belloc

By D. A. Traversi

Full List o f Contents on page 36.

T H E W O R L D W E E K B Y W E E K Progress in Spain

The past few days have seen progress in two directions, both improving the immediate outlook. The NonIntervention Committee, under the chairmanship of Lord Halifax, held the most successful of its meetings. The Soviet representative, M. Kagan, contented himself with some modification of the formula governing maritime contro l ; otherwise all the Powers have accepted the details of the scheme, and it only remains for Salamanca and Barcelona to accept in detail what they have already accepted in principle. Even so, two or three months will be needed before the committee’s officials arrive in Spain and the work of repatriating foreign participants begins. As soon as it has begun an increasingly anomalous position will be rectified with the formal recognition of belligerent status.

The time is growing short, and the present moment, and the next few weeks, offer the least favourable occasions for desperate attempts by the Negrin Government to attempt to save themselves by widening the area of conflict. With a slightly different Government in France it is probable that some desperate stroke would be attempted. For M. Blum and his friend, M. Salamon Grumbach, have been testifying, as in Le Populaire, the French Socialist paper which M. Blum controls, how real is the threat from Barcelona to bombard the great cities of Italy : Genoa, Milan, Turin and Rome itself.

We are approaching the last weeks in which the Nationalist element in Spain can be represented abroad as something which would quickly collapse without the Italians and the Germans. Already the Italian contingents are being re-formed with a view to their repatriation. There is also a time limit for Barcelona tactics in the military advance of the Nationalists, who are now at the gates of Sagunto. The troops of Generals Aranda and Valino, the brigades of Castille and Galicia, are advancing methodically. The bulletins ■of General Miaja, commander-in-chief on the other side, still try to represent the campaign as a foreign invasion which must therefore be resisted, a claim which is ironical enough from Miaja, who knows, as well as any man, how completely Madrid, where he commanded for so long, owed its military defence to foreign assistance. General Miaja’s bulletins disclose a good deal of the increasingly desperate state of his forces who are yet, he says, contesting the ground foot by foot.

Valencia is now some twenty miles from the fighting line. It is not nearly so formidable in its natural setting and fortifications as was the great industrial stronghold of Bilbao, and the Nationalists took Bilbao a year ago, when they were still fighting on two fronts. After Valencia there will only remain some four minor harbours to connect Madrid with the outer world. It is obviously well understood in Salamanca that time is so strongly on the side of the Nationalists that it is not worth while jeopardizing the outlook, and in particular the British plan, by providing bombing incidents of a kind convenient for the French and British Left Wing parties. The Specialists

Where trouble is likely to come is if the NonIntervention plan is used not merely to secure military withdrawals but to detach foreign tentacles, in the form of specialists and technical services, from the life of Spain. On both sides such specialists have played an important part. Their presence has been more easily concealed at Barcelona by the great readiness there to grant Spanish citizenship to convenient individuals. The active participation of the Third International has all through been largely camouflaged, and an attempt will undoubtedly be made to cover a large number of foreign volunteers whose services are valuable by saying that they are Spanish citizens. These tactics are completely alien to the strong nationalism of both Spaniards and the foreigners under General Franco.

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