THE TABLET
A Weekly N ew sp a p er a n d R ev iew DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN IN CΠPT IS V E S TR IS CONSTANTER MANEATIS
From the Brief o f His Holiness Pius IX to 7 he Tablet, June 4,1870.
V o l . 158. No. 4.777. L o n d o n , N o v e m b e r 28, 1931.
S i x p e n c e .
Registered at the General Post Office as a Newspaper
News and No t e s ................. 685 Disarmament with Discre
Page I
tion ....................................... 689 News from Two Fronts . . . 690 R eviews :
From Sweden ................. 692 Full Fathom Five . . . 693 The Influence of Philo
sophy on Education . . . 693 “ Empress Amongst Prin
cesses ”
A Labour Man’s Retro
spect ............................ 694 Books Received ................. 694
694
CONT
Page
New Books and Music . . . 695 Notes for Musicians . . . 696 Coming Events ................. 696 Disarmament 697 Catholic Education Notes . .. 698 Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ............................ 701 An Outpost in Caernarvon
shire
Et Castes a ............................ 703
702
ENTS
Letters to the Editor :
The New Franciscan
Page
Friary at Oxford . . . 704 The Angclus ................. 704 Canaries as Prizes . . . 704 The Branch Theory . . . 704 From The Tablet of Ninety
Years Ago
705
Episcopal Engagements 705 Ch e s s ....................................... 706 Catholic Women’s League 706 Orbis Terrarum :
England, Scotland and Wales ............................ 707
Orbis Terrarum (Contd.) :
Page
Ireland ............................708 Australia ............................ 708 Austria ............................ 708 China ............................ 709 Czechoslovakia ................. 709 France ............................ 709 French West Indies . . . 710 Holland ............................ 710 India ............................ 710 Poland ............................ 710 Spain ............................ 712 School Sports .............. 712 Social and P ersonal . . . 712 Next Week' ............................712
NOTANDA Science and Faith. The H o ly Father points a lesson from the life o f Blessed Albert the Great (p. 701).
Disarmament. An important speech by Cardinal Bpurne (p. 697).
Fine examples. Canada's and the Irish Free State’s resolute stand against Communism (p. 690).
Mgr. Schreiber’s recent discourse. The Tablet fills in a lacuna from which a miasma o f misunderstanding has exhaled (p. 688).
“ Roman Children ” on the banks o f the Mersey. A n Anglican’s remarkable figures (p. 687).
The Statute o f Westminster and the Irish Free State. Last Tuesday’s debate in the Commons (p. 685).
“ Dynastic couplets.” Echoes from Lewes and an attempt at imitation (p. 688).
The old Protestantism in Scotland, and the new. A Catholic professor’s address at Edinburgh (p. 707).
Spain. Good work by the Fathers o f Families Associations (p. 712).
A function in the Welsh mountains. The refoundation o f a Catholic centre at Trefriw (p. 702).
NEWS AND NOTES F IVE and twenty strenuous months as Prime Minister o f the Commonwealth o f Australia stand to the credit of Mr. Scullin, who so favourably impressed his fellow-Catholics when leading statesmen from the Dominions conferred in London. On Wednesday, Air. Scullin was defeated by a narrow majority, after a debate concerning the much attacked Mr. Theodore. The sequel must be a General Election. It will be a very stormy one ; and, for that and other reasons, we may hope and pray that it will clear the air and thus enable Australia to continue an advance which has lately been interrupted.
N ew S e r ie s . Vol. CXXVI. No. 4,176.
Not often in the variegated history o f the British Empire have political prophets been so amply mocked by events as in the case o f the Irish Free State. Ten years ago, it was predicted on all sides that Southern Irish autonomy would quickly turn the country into a bear-garden, and that frantic appeals would be made by all the best Irishmen for the return of our soldiers and officials. The actual sequel has been different. During the troublous decade which is now ending, Southern Ireland has had a more stable Government than any other State or Dominion in the British Commonwealth o f Nations. This pleasant fact was handsomely recognized in the House o f Commons last Tuesday, during the debate on the Statute of Westminster.
Another prediction delivered by the prophets of evil in 1922 was to the effect that Ireland would not keep faith with England and that the Treaty would be regarded as no more than a scrap of paper by Irish eyes. Here again the event has rebuked the prophets. During Tuesday’s debate, some o f our most responsible and highly-respected statesmen paid tributes of praise to Ireland’s untarnished honour in respect of her Treaty obligations. Among the speakers was Mr. J. H. Thomas, who made a deep impression upon the House by reading a letter which Mr. Cosgrave had sent to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, last Monday. The President o f the Free State Executive Council has been perturbed by the efforts of certain Conservative members to change the Statute of Westminster in such a manner as to include some so-called safeguards against Irish repudiation of the Treaty. Here are the important paragraphs o f Mr. Cosgrave’s letter :
7 need scarcely impress upon you that the maintenance of the happy relations which now exist between our two countries is absolutely dependent upon the continued acceptance by each of us of the good faith of the other. This situation has been constantly present to our minds, and we have reiterated time and again that the Treaty is an agreement which can only be altered by consent.
I mention this particularly because there seems to be a mistaken view in seme quarters that the solemnity of this
