• Wednesday's papers published the report of an interview between
the Pope and M. Latapie, the special correspondent of the LiberU in Rome. M. Latapie's questions were avowedly put with a view to elicit an explanation of the reticence displayed by the Vatican on the conduct of the war, and the frankness of the Pope's answers is not calculated to remeve the painful impression which that reticence has created. From beginning to end the Pope refused to say a single word in condemnation of Germany. He recalled his efforts to promote peace and secure a Christmas truce, but declared that it would be neither seemly nor useful for Pontifical authority to intervene in the disputes of belligerents. "Each accusation is replied to by the Germans, and I cannot at the present moment make inquiries." He reminded his interviewer of the German official defence of the sack of Louvain and the shelling of Reims Cathedral. He had given orders to re-form the library at Louvain, and would help to rebuild the Cathedrals But the time had "not yet come to sift the truth from all these contradictory statements. The Vatican is not a tribunal. The Judge sits on high."
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