M. Millerand has introduced a Bill authorizing the resumption of
diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican. This is a strange reversal of the anti-clerical policy which the.Republic adopted some twenty years ago, but the French Foreign Office seems to attach importance.to.the. measure. A writer in, the Journal dee Debate commends the Bill to France by- pointing to Mr. Asquith's decision to send an Envoy to the Vatican early in the war. There is no, real parallel between the two cases. The British- Mission may possibly have served as,a check on the hostile intrigues of which the Vatican was a centre, but there is no-justification for such a Mission in normal times. France, whose people are mainly Roman Catholics, has very different reasons for being represented at the. Vatican. Our example should-not be allowed to influence. her decision.
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