OUR ROMAN LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 25 April 1918, Page 18

OUR ROMAN LETTER

By “ScoTTus,”

Continuing his letter (the first part of which appeared in 'the Tablet of April 11), our correspondent goes on to say ; — : __ -' ' - ' ; ■ • .. * The Holy Father would assuredly have been less impressed with the failure of his efforts, ; and a more jubilant note would . have pervaded his pathetically beautiful discourse, had it been delivered. a week or two later. But at that moment no one could imagine Mr. Lloyd George was.about to descend from his lofty steed and that instead of flippantly if not insolently brushing aside the Pope’s peace proposals as unworthy of serious attention, which was his attitude of a month or two ago, he was about to pay these same proposals the highest of compliments, that of almost slavish imitation; nor could anyone imagine that the tone of holy indignation pervading Mr. Wilson’s reply to these proposals was so soon to give place to a pronouncement in which it is difficult to find a single point that differs substantially from the programme outlined by Benedict XV. as a just and reasonable basis 'for a fair and lasting peace. This aspect of the case has not passed unnoticed here, and more than one newspaper of importance at once pointed out that in all essential particulars the articles put forward by the English Prime Minister as a just and reasonable basis of peace were practically identical with those laid down by the Pope and flippantly rejected by Mr. Lloyd George a couple of months ago—namely, the re-integration of Belgium; the restitution of territories under military occupation in France and elsewhere; the claims of the ancient kingdom of Poland to independence “because of its noble traditions and the sufferings it has undergone”; the independence of Armenia and of -other nations similarly situated; the adjustment of disputed territorial questions in accordance with the aspirations of the peoples most concerned ; the might of right to replace the right of might the reduction of armaments; the establishing of a permanent court of arbitration; and, as Cardinal Gasparri explained in a note of what was meant by the reduction of armaments, the abolition of military conscription all the world over. The Pope, too, had insisted on the liberty of the seas and on respect for the principle of nationalities as indispensable articles of a just and lasting peace. For obvious reasons Mr. Lloyd George could not be expected to be too explicit or too generous or too outspoken in this respect; but whatever was wanting in the English 'Premier’s programme has been fully, or nearly so, made up by Mr. Wilson, who has now declared himself at one with the Pope in calling for absolute liberty of navigation, a league of nations, and especially the recognition of the principle which the President says underlies his whole programme, that of justice for all peoples and all nationalities, and that of their right to live side by side on an equal footing of liberty and security, be they strong or be they weak. Naturally no one could expect either Mr. Wilson or Mr. Lloyd George to show their whole hand all at once. Both are out for a bargain, and both are therefore more ready to insist on what the other v party to the bargain must do than on what they are ready to do themselves. Thus Mr. Lloyd George is quite willing to internationalise the Dardanelles, give 'freedom to Armenia and other civilised nations' under Turkish rule, and restore' Poland to her place in the sun; but naturally he cannot be expected to extend his offer all at once to Suez and. Gibraltar and other places nearer home; while Mr. Wilson is most eager to free every nation in Europe but is' silent about regions further afield, such as the Philippines, Cuba, and the region of Panama. Needless to say, the impression created by Mr. Lloyd George’s statement : has produced a profound sensation here and has led-to infinite comments, some of which, particularly his references to the settlement

• - .. . n • 1 i , Tty- ’ of the differences between Italy and Austria, have not always been complimentary. ■ But readers will be more anxious to know how the advance has been j received by ? the Holy , See. Fortunately ... the. information -i, is' supplied by a note appearing in the semi-official Osservatore'Romano, which may be taken as reflecting; the mind of the Cardinal Secretary of State on the ,subject. ' Here are its comments : ± ■}-’-J ■ “The speech may be the beginning of the end.. We now know in an official and solemn way what. England requires to make peace. Hitherto there wereso many compacts, conventions, . and discourses during; the course of the war that no one could say for certain at any given moment what precisely » were the essential conditions demanded by the Allies to bring the struggle to an end and this was exactly what the Central Empires were twitting them with. The latter had spoken out on the subject of peace, but the Allies had made no reply, while whatever had been said in an official way, by Mr. Wilson, for' instance, in his reply to the Pope, was certainly inapplicable to the actual military situation. But the Allies’ peace programme is now known. England has, and quite properly, thrown not a little ballast into the sea, and has reduced her war aims to certain points capable of being discussed by the opposite side. Nor is this all: the war programme of the English Premier approaches so near to that of Count Czernin that the hour seems at hand for discussion to determine and define the points with regard to which there still exists divergence of view. “It is now the turn of Germany and Austria to speak out and declare their views with regard to these points. Let us hope they will do this, either in a public statement, or, better still, in private interchanges with the representatives of the Allies. “If, as is to be hoped, a conciliatory spirit will dominate both sides in their conversations, the ray of light that has issued from London and Brest Litovsk may easily turn out to be the dawn of peace.”

* * * In a subsequent issue the same authoritative organ, referring to the President’s programme, remarked as follows: “Hardly was the Papal appeal made known when many voices were raised against " and amongst these President Wilson’s, to whom, however, the maxim now applies that it is a sign of a wise man to change his mind. Then there was not a single point with regard to which the Pontiff had invited rulers to initiate a friendly interchange of views, that was not criticised, and sometimes with bitterness but now, with the lapse of time, and not a very long time either, passions have calmed down and many prejudices have had to give way to truth and justice; and the Pope’s peace, which used to be called a German peace, can now be called with equal truth an English and an 'American peace, so well-founded were the concepts underlying the Papal Note and so equally distant were they from backing up the interests of either of the contending parties.” * * *

Looking back on what has happened since the issue of the Papal Note one cannot help remarking that had the two statesmen at once issued a reply setting forth the views to which they have now given expression they would ; in all probability have done much to bring the war to an end three months ago and thus would have savedthousands of lives, tens of thousands of wounded, not to speak of hundreds of thousands of prisoners and miles , on miles of „ Italian territory that have fallen into the hands of the Central Empires in the interval. But the foolish compact to exclude the Pope from having anything to do with the making of peace stood in the way, and neither of the two statesmen seem to have been too ready to afford the Pope the satisfaction of' seeing' his efforts successful. Yet in days to come, history will portion out the praise and the-blame,'and will assuredly have little fault to find with him who stood out and struck the ferst blow for peace, a blow which time has fully justi-

lied, , and led the way to sanity and humanity. when statesmen . were needlessly sacrificing lives and blighting hopes and heaping ruin on ruin all over Europe The Pope was right. The grain of wheat cast into a hard and stony ground soon fructified, and ere long is likely to yield a'hundredfold. ' '

V'*„* • * .. . The energy and ability displayed by Mr. McKean in the House of Commons at a time when others who might have been expected to speak out were silent with regard to the attempted exclusion of the Pope from the making of peace, have not passed unnoticed here, and have won for him the gratitude of those whose gratitude is worth having. Nor has it escaped attention that the London Tablet apparently considered the exclusion of the Pope as a matter of little importance, seeing that Mr. McKean’s questions and the replies thereto were not considered worth mentioning in that militant organ of the English Catholic body. Alderman Byrne, too, deserves and may count on the gratitude of several score of Irish students in this city whose position with regard to the application of the conscription law which is now being applied to British residents in this country he succeeded in securing by his timely questions in the House of Commons, thus rendering them immune from annoyance to which they might easily have been subjected in these days when every available Britisher is being called upon to join up and do his bit for small nations from China to Peru. * * * In an article headed “English Catholic Life,” the Catholic Corn ere d' Italia, which, by the way, has been handing round the hat recently among Catholics from all parts of the world for funds to keep it afloat, gives some account of what it has been led to consider the part played by English Catholics in England’s war. Among the rest the article in question is loud in praise of the patriotic help given by the religious Orders of Ireland in sending so many of their men as chaplains to the army, a sure sign, we are led to infer, of their sympathies for the Empire in the hour of need. The concluding paragraph of the article gives the reader to understand how the English Catholic Truth Society is doing such magnificent work that in a recent conference it considered and set forth “the means whereby to guide the Irish working classes in accordance with the directions and sound Christian principles of Leo XIII., and to save them from the anti-Catholic and antipatriotic influence of international socialism.”

If you tell a lie at all, be sure to tell a good one !