5 DECEMBER 1952, Page 5

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

MR. EVELYN WAUGH will have done nothing but an ill service to the Roman Catholicism in whose name he writes (though he claims to speak for many other Christians) in dealing as he has done in the Sunday Express, under the offen- sive heading "Our Guest of Dishonour," with the forth- coming visit of Marshal Tito to this country. Marshal Tito is the head of a friendly nation. He has for the last four years been moving steadily away from the orbit of Moscow into the orbit of the West, though both he and his country remain resolutely Communist—as they are perfectly entitled to do. His attitude to the West and, equally, his rapprochement with Greece, are notable factors in the growing stability of Europe. At the invitation of the British Foreign Secretary he is to leave Yugoslavia for the first time since he became Head of the State. "Let Mr. Eden not think that his guest will be welcome," writes Mr. Waugh, as the culmination of a vitupera- tive attack. Mr. Eden is no doubt perfectly satisfied that his guest will be welcome—as he is fully justified in being. It is, of course, desirable to do everything possible to secure good treatment for Christians in Yugoslavia, and friendly representations by Mr. Eden to Marshal Tito when he comes might well have had effect. But the animosities this virulent attack has already aroused may well make it inadvisable for the Foreign Secretary to raise that question at all. Mr. Waugh could not have chosen a worse way to secure what he desires.