12 DECEMBER 1952, Page 5

A SPECTAT OR'S NOTEBOOK

HAVING commented last week on the ill-timed and intemperate attack made by Mr. Evelyn Waugh in a Sunday paper on Marshal Tito in the name of his fellow Roman Catholics, I am glad to pay tribute to the moderation and discretion with which Cardinal Griffin has since discussed the same question. While speaking in firm and emphatic terms of the treatment Roman Catholics have received in Yugoslavia, the Cardinal went on to say that good may actually come of Marshal Tito's visit to this country if Mr. Eden takes the opportunity to convey to him in appropriate language the feelings of millions of Christians in this country about the persecution of Christians in Yugoslavia are undergoing. That, I may observe, is almost precisely what I said myself here a week ago. I would only add that it is to be hoped that it will be left to the Foreign Secretary to say in his own way what he feels can and should be said. To raise questions with the Head of a State about internal conditions in his country is ,a delicate matter, particu- larly when the relationship of host and guest is involved. Only Mr. Eden can judge how much can be said with advantage and how much would be unwise and detrimental.