BARGAINING WITH . THE POPE'S DIFFICULTIES INDIA
IN seeking to solve the problem of JIndia the motives of those who are at work are of vital importance. The only real test is whether a man is honestly seeking the best good of that vast congeries of peoples or not. At present we are making wild promises, the chief motive of which is to secure India's cooperation in the war and her active resistance to Germany. The motive is not good enough. Neither is the motive of the reactionaries whose chief reason for " going slow " is to protect British capital, power and careers. Our first task is to persuade Indian leaders, whether Hindu or Mohammedan, that our one and only concern is to make possible for the people of India that political order, that social life, that economic status which will establish and secure their welfare. If we can do this, we shall he able, in co-operation with their leaders, to tackle the highly complex problem of how this is to be achieved in practice in the shortest possible space of time. And if at the present time we can scarcely fail to keep at the back of our minds the desirability of India's resistance to the blandishments both of Berlin and Moscow, we may be certain that a truly honest approach to the problem will in fact do far more to achieve this end, which we sincerely believe to be desirable for the good of India, than another chapter of more or less hypocritical bargaining. FROM the Labour fortnightly, the News Letter, edited by Lord Elton, comes a most sensible and understanding comment on the Papacy's attitude to the war.
" Within living memory in this country," states the paper, " the suggestion that the Pope should air his views on international affairs would have been regarded as both unpatriotic and absurd. To-day Pius XII is often criticised because he does not say enough. What has happened to the Pope? the English Empire asks a little querulously, and many good Protestants are heard angrily demanding the excommunication of both Hitler and Mussolini. What actually has happened to Pius XII is largely a matter of history. For the first nine months of the war, owing to the HitlerStalin agreement and Italy's neutrality the Vatican gave strong spiritual support to the Allies. The invasions of Poland, Finland and Norway were all condemned by the Pope.
" More recently, however, two events have occurred to modify the Vatican's attitude. The first was the entrance of Italy into the war, an event which has naturally caused grave personal and political difficulties for the Pope. The seelnd is the attempt being made by the British Government to come to an understanding, arid were it possible to form an alliance, with Russia. The fact that such an endeavour is being made, apart from the possibility of its success, is profoundly disturbing to the Pope."