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THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW ESTABLISHED 1840 VOL. 178 No. 5289 PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER LONDON, SEPTEMBER 20th, 1941 SIXPENCE IN T H I S I S S U E THE PROTECTION OF DOGMA Current Fashions and Abiding Authority in Religion THE SPIRITUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF GERMANY Catholicism and Prussia. By H. C. Graef POST-WAR DIFFICULTIES IN SPAIN A Correspondent from Spain describes the Food Situation TWO TRACTS FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Tendencies in the Writing of Mr. Gerald Heard and Mr. Bertrand Russell THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Navy at War Mr. Roosevelt’s speech, last week, was by general agreement the most important development of American policy since the outbreak of war. This war has now become “ the strangest of all wars” in a sense somewhat different to that in which Mr. Chamberlain first used the phrase. Mr. Roosevelt, by giving to the Navy the order to shoot, has confronted the Germans with a grave dilemma. Either they must refuse to take up his challenge, or else the onus of making war will have to be accepted by them. If it should be so accepted, the President will both avoid the necessity of having to get formal Congressional assent to his policy, and also an excuse will have been given to the Japanese, should they wish to take advantage of it to evade their obligations to Germany. It has been well said that Congress has always hesitated to accept his proposals but agreed to support his actions, and there is little doubt that they are well content that he should act as he has acted so long only as they do not have to answer for his conduct before their constituencies. The German broadcaster from Zeesen, with justifiable wit, has called the President’s address “ a firecast broadside,” and so it has proved. The fact that the nation has always supported the President’s action does not, of course, prove that it would have been possible for him to have advanced more rapidly than he has. It has supported him because with uncanny accuracy he has always judged just how far he can go. The U.S. Navy is to shoot in waters deemed necessary for the defence of the U.S.A., and already that definition covers the route to Iceland. We may conclude that whatever Hitler does, whether he orders his ships to fight or acquiesces, American production will continue to reach the theatres of war. It is not surprising that Mr. Churchill has definitely dropped down to being Enemy No. 2 in the propaganda of the Axis. It is being said now by our enemies that just as France only declared war in 1939 because of us, we only continued in 1940 because of the United States. Not Hitler but President Roosevelt is designated as the one man with whom the peace of the world rested, and he chose war. This propaganda needs a public quite oblivious of the President’s ceaseless efforts to save peace. He supported Mr. Chamberlain to the full, and he established a special link with another man working hard to prevent disaster, Pius XII. In Rome, if not in Berlin, this new propaganda will make no mark. What it does do is to reveal an uncomfortable awareness on the part of the Axis chiefs that the war is not going to be called off or compromised. The Holy Father has asked for prayers through October that the war, with all its sufferings, may be shortened, and there is not a man who wants it to go on a day longer than is necessary to free the world from the German threat. But the task that lies before us is a long one by all human reckoning. The Prospect for Turkey Admiral Raeder has been followed in Sofia by FieldMarshal von Brauchitsch. All the evidence suggests that they have been engaged in something more important than persuading King Boris to send troops to relieve the hard-pressed Rumanian besiegers of Odessa, or discussing means of controlling the restless proSoviet Bulgarians. Such tasks as these would not require the presence of such eminent representatives of the Reich. Moreover, a large-scale entry of German forces .into Bulgaria is in progress. The Russian note to Sofia gave some details of this. It described the concentration of German and Italian troops in Bulgaria, the German strengthening of the air bases which they control, and the preparation for use as naval bases of the ports of Varna and Burgas, where U-boats and other warships are being assembled under the supervision of Admiral Raeder. In Turkey there is naturally some anxiety at these events, but on the whole the Turkish Government continues to show a remarkable equanimity, and to treat Dr. Clodius and his attendants as any commercial envoy might be treated in peace-time. Those who do not believe that the preparations in Bulgaria are directed solely against Russia, are slow to believe that they might be directed against Turkey. It is widely held in the Middle East that a major British offensive in Africa is imminent, and from that it can be inferred with comforting ease that the Germans appear to threaten an invasion of Turkey only so as to keep as many British troops as possible in Syria, away from the Libyan desert. Others point out that within a month now the rains will bring about the flooding of the Maritsa river, which forms the frontier of Turkish Thrace, and make the first battleground for Turkey as much a mass of mud as any

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THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840

VOL. 178 No. 5289

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 20th, 1941

SIXPENCE

IN T H I S I S S U E

THE PROTECTION OF DOGMA Current Fashions and Abiding Authority in Religion

THE SPIRITUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF GERMANY

Catholicism and Prussia. By H. C. Graef POST-WAR DIFFICULTIES IN SPAIN

A Correspondent from Spain describes the Food Situation TWO TRACTS FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Tendencies in the Writing of Mr. Gerald Heard and Mr. Bertrand Russell

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The Navy at War

Mr. Roosevelt’s speech, last week, was by general agreement the most important development of American policy since the outbreak of war. This war has now become “ the strangest of all wars” in a sense somewhat different to that in which Mr. Chamberlain first used the phrase. Mr. Roosevelt, by giving to the Navy the order to shoot, has confronted the Germans with a grave dilemma. Either they must refuse to take up his challenge, or else the onus of making war will have to be accepted by them. If it should be so accepted, the President will both avoid the necessity of having to get formal Congressional assent to his policy, and also an excuse will have been given to the Japanese, should they wish to take advantage of it to evade their obligations to Germany. It has been well said that Congress has always hesitated to accept his proposals but agreed to support his actions, and there is little doubt that they are well content that he should act as he has acted so long only as they do not have to answer for his conduct before their constituencies. The German broadcaster from Zeesen, with justifiable wit, has called the President’s address “ a firecast broadside,” and so it has proved. The fact that the nation has always supported the President’s action does not, of course, prove that it would have been possible for him to have advanced more rapidly than he has. It has supported him because with uncanny accuracy he has always judged just how far he can go.

The U.S. Navy is to shoot in waters deemed necessary for the defence of the U.S.A., and already that definition covers the route to Iceland. We may conclude that whatever Hitler does, whether he orders his ships to fight or acquiesces, American production will continue to reach the theatres of war.

It is not surprising that Mr. Churchill has definitely dropped down to being Enemy No. 2 in the propaganda of the Axis. It is being said now by our enemies that just as France only declared war in 1939 because of us, we only continued in 1940 because of the United States. Not Hitler but President Roosevelt is designated as the one man with whom the peace of the world rested, and he chose war. This propaganda needs a public quite oblivious of the President’s ceaseless efforts to save peace. He supported Mr. Chamberlain to the full, and he established a special link with another man working hard to prevent disaster, Pius XII. In Rome, if not in Berlin, this new propaganda will make no mark. What it does do is to reveal an uncomfortable awareness on the part of the Axis chiefs that the war is not going to be called off or compromised. The Holy Father has asked for prayers through October that the war, with all its sufferings, may be shortened, and there is not a man who wants it to go on a day longer than is necessary to free the world from the German threat. But the task that lies before us is a long one by all human reckoning. The Prospect for Turkey

Admiral Raeder has been followed in Sofia by FieldMarshal von Brauchitsch. All the evidence suggests that they have been engaged in something more important than persuading King Boris to send troops to relieve the hard-pressed Rumanian besiegers of Odessa, or discussing means of controlling the restless proSoviet Bulgarians. Such tasks as these would not require the presence of such eminent representatives of the Reich. Moreover, a large-scale entry of German forces .into Bulgaria is in progress. The Russian note to Sofia gave some details of this. It described the concentration of German and Italian troops in Bulgaria, the German strengthening of the air bases which they control, and the preparation for use as naval bases of the ports of Varna and Burgas, where U-boats and other warships are being assembled under the supervision of Admiral Raeder.

In Turkey there is naturally some anxiety at these events, but on the whole the Turkish Government continues to show a remarkable equanimity, and to treat Dr. Clodius and his attendants as any commercial envoy might be treated in peace-time. Those who do not believe that the preparations in Bulgaria are directed solely against Russia, are slow to believe that they might be directed against Turkey. It is widely held in the Middle East that a major British offensive in Africa is imminent, and from that it can be inferred with comforting ease that the Germans appear to threaten an invasion of Turkey only so as to keep as many British troops as possible in Syria, away from the Libyan desert. Others point out that within a month now the rains will bring about the flooding of the Maritsa river, which forms the frontier of Turkish Thrace, and make the first battleground for Turkey as much a mass of mud as any

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