[To •the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In your " News, of the Week ". you, refer to the Pope as an Italian Pope. May remind you that the Pope is not an Italian national but the sovereign ruler of an indepen- dent State—the, Vatican City .? In hiS spiritual capacity the Pope is the supreme head of by far the larger section of the Western Church, and claims .-to be supreme in all mattens
of faith and. morals'. ‘Var . is surely. .a question • of morals. In these circumstances the world has expected and would have welcomed from the Pope an . ad hoc pronouncement Upon the Italo-Ethiopian situation. The statements which have, up to the present, been made by His HolinesS, although expressing:admirable sentiments, have been in terms too general to have any, influence. Your correspondent, Mr. John A. Barry, states that the Pope cannot, judge. without knowing all the facts, but have not all the facts been known to the world fOr months past ? What further facts -are, there to knew ? The Wal Wal incident upon which Italy. originally founded its claims has now been adjudicated 11)°11- If the dispute were to be judged by the ordinary standards of civilised justice it would therefore now be at [The use of the term " an Italian Pope," was not, of course, ultended•to imply, that the Pope remained an Italian national after his, elevation to the Holy See. But he was an Italian national, and all his traditions Italian, for 65 out of his 78 Years of life.—En. The Spectator.]
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