textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/mccabe07.xml

<xml><p> 29 page printout
<ent type='ORG'>Reproducible Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
**** ****</p>

<p>Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p>

<p>THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 7</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> HOW THE PREACHING OF PEACE FIZZLED OUT,
AND WHY</p>

<p> by Joseph McCabe</p>

<p> HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> CHAPTER</p>

<p> I <ent type='EVENT'>The War</ent> in the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> .............. 1</p>

<p> II <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> "Not a <ent type='LOC'>Catholic Country</ent>" ........ 8</p>

<p> III The Treachery of <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent> ......... 14</p>

<p> IV <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> Recovers its Faith and Losses its Honor ..... 19</p>

<p> V The Amazing Folly of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Bloc ........ 25</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Chapter I</p>

<p> THE WAR IN THE WEST</p>

<p> Those of us who know the ways of <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s watch our papers
cynically for the first signs of a change of heart in Immutable
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. In the first year of a war the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is on the side of the big
battalions, or, in the language of modern war, the <ent type='ORG'>Panzer</ent>
divisions. How could a nation like <ent type='GPE'>Great Britain</ent> expect a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to
declare its cause just if it had only a score of good fighting
planes and hundreds of thousands of hospital beds and coffins ready
when it launched its thunderbolt? In the second year the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
becomes the Great Neutral, very eloquent in telling the virtues of
peace to a world which hardly needs that assurance. In the third
year he becomes the Arbiter of Right and Wrong. He find's that
there are limits to the world's leniency and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> layman's
docility.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
1
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The time has come for the third phase. The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> system is
ominously stretched, and expert ears listen for the first crack.
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, disillusioned and beggared, would hang out its tattered
flags if it heard of the death of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> sees
the great <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> fleet looming on the horizon. All the little
parasite dictators and Quislings tremble in their dishonored homes.
Through the world surges the first flush of confidence in three
years . . . So we begin to hear strange things from those spokesmen
of <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> -- the Radio, the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent>, and the publicity
bureau -- which can be quoted later as evidence of the Pope's
sentiments or lightly dismissed as "unauthorized," as the
circumstances require.</p>

<p> The latest to hand reminds us how in a world which permits
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to intrigue in every newspaper office and every political
lobby the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> can command respectful attention for any
eccentricity, audacity, or mendacity he cares to perpetrate. <ent type='PERSON'>Myron</ent>
C. <ent type='PERSON'>Taylor</ent>, whose secret proceedings under cover of his unofficial
office the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> public might find it interesting to
investigate, recently spent a week in <ent type='PERSON'>Lisbon</ent> on his way from the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to the President. Under the devout dictator <ent type='PERSON'>Salazar</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Lisbon</ent>,
not many years ago a great <ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent> center, has become an important
international outpost of <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>. Representatives of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> breathe its air with lordly
freedom. It was, therefore, not very surprising that shortly after
Mr. Taylor's departure <ent type='ORG'>the London</ent> Times had this paragraph, which
a <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> writer welcomed with the reminder that "good hearty
laughs are hard to come by in these days," from its <ent type='PERSON'>Lisbon</ent>
correspondent:</p>

<p> "High ecclesiastical sources throw one clear ray of light on
the Pope's attitude to the war. His Holiness in private episcopal
audiences has drawn an important distinction between the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> systems. His public discourses have implied the obvious
truth that the philosophy behind each is fundamentally anti-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, but in private he has repeatedly said that, whereas
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm is almost entirely evil in its inspiration, Communism has in
it certain elements of natural good which, even if utterly
perverted, still exist. <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> is in some sense a corruption of
the virtues of brotherly love and self-sacrifice, whereas <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm is
a direct and untrammelled manifestation of hatred and greed."</p>

<p> I venture to think that if the reader has not seen that
passage before but has read some books of this series it leaves him
breathless. By comparison the passage in which the Archbishop of
York tried a week later to emulate his Brother in Christ seems
almost rational. He said:</p>

<p> "So far as I understand the economic system of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, as it
was when the invasion began, I see little or nothing in it with
which a <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> needs to quarrel" (<ent type='ORG'>London Evening</ent> News, November
13).</p>

<p> If we had not the Pope's words (alleged) to compare with this
we should call it a luscious example of the kind of thing that
bishops alone are permitted to say. The essential aim and operation
of the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n economic system is to share the wealth which the
people of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> produce, without one iota of exploitation of </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
2
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>colonies or subject nations, amongst the producers, and with
immeasurably stricter justice than could be found in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> or
anywhere else; and Dr. Temple, who has paid attention to the ethic
of social and economic arrangements for thirty years, ought to know
it.</p>

<p> But his boldness in suggesting that it is not quite on the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> level pales beside that of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. For years <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Pius has showered upon the entire <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n system every epithet that
a man in his position is supposed to know. In a comprehensive word
it is "satanic." The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world was taught to close its eyes
and shudder at the word <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> and to regard the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s as the
<ent type='NORP'>Teutonic</ent> Knight whom God had chosen to destroy it. Now we are asked
to believe that while in public the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> merely pointed out the
"obvious truth" that both systems are anti-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> in private he
always acknowledged that <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> was perverted virtue -- that is
to say, virtue without a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> basis -- and <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm unreservedly
corrupt.</p>

<p> I need not point out to my readers that this is false. The
language which <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> has used about <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> for years,
much of which I have quoted, condemned it vitriolically, on moral
and social grounds, as destructive of the social order and of
civilization, productive of vice, and stifling to personality. It
was almost the only justification of his eight years' courtship of
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and his silence while the entire <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
applauded those "victories" of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is now
said to have regarded always as successes of greed and hatred, that
one day they would destroy <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> and so save civilization.
That there is no other country in the world in which the Pope's
alleged ideals -- Peace, Charity, and Justice -- have been more
cherished and carried out in practice than in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> I will show in
a booklet on <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>'s relations to that country. But there is
a growing acknowledgment today that it is the classic land of
"brotherly love and Self-sacrifice." What shall we say of this
moral oracle of 200000000 people who, when he is supposed to be
correcting an earlier estimate of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, still puts it on a lower
level than <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, or <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>?</p>

<p> If we were to accept this <ent type='PERSON'>Lisbon</ent> report of the Pope's words as
genuine most of us would reflect, with a shrug of the shoulders,
that what these high ecclesiastical authorities say seems to be of
no interest to us common folk with our simple notions of
truthfulness and plain speech. On the other hand, since we must at
least regard it as a move on the part of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> we
should say that it will make <ent type='PERSON'>Goebbels</ent> look to his <ent type='ORG'>laurels</ent>. From
1917 to 1924, while the rest of the world cursed <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the
Vatican courted it. From 1926 to 1941 when <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> emerged from the
raw conditions of the civil war and the famine and won increasing
respect, <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> cursed it and called for its destruction. Now
that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> armies unite with the armies, of "hatred and greed"
to destroy it the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> puts out tentative suggestions of a
return to the early courtship. It is one of a hundred indications
given in these books that <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> has only one aim
-- the recovery or enlargement of its wealth and power -- and one
code of action, the ecclesiastical code. All this talk about social
interests and the cause of civilization is eyewash.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> Can we suppose that, as will probably be said presently,
recent events have opened the eye's of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>? What events? Has
something happened recently that is worse than the ruin of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>? Remember that in not one
single instance of these exhibitions of greed and sadistic cruelty
has the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> said that that was their character. Half of this
foulness had been perpetrated before the end of 1939 yet the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
just then elected to pay Mussolini's royal vassal and spy, <ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent>
of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, more gorgeous compliments than any <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> had paid in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
since <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> began to have Kings. In the Christmas season the king
and queen -- probably wearing the Golden Rose he had given her as
<ent type='ORG'>Empress</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent> -- had visited him, with rich presents, in the
Vatican. A few days later, not in compliance with Papal custom but
defying all precedent in his anxiety to do honor to the degraded
pair, he travelled across <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> to the Quirinal and exchanged the
most cordial Christmas greetings and compliments in the opulent
throne-room of the palace.</p>

<p> At that time, in pursuance of a policy jointly agreed upon
between <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> were writhing,
half-starved, bloodily scourged, amidst the ruins of their homes.
The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> knew it. He proved repeatedly daring 1940 that in spite of
all <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> efforts to cut his communications with the country, he
continued to receive, doubtless through Swedish <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, news
from <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>! We remember his warm protest when, in 1940, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
soldiers and <ent type='ORG'>Gestapo</ent> men began, under official orders, to castrate
them by the thousand's. You surely remember how <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>
protested that the operation was not in accord with <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
theology!</p>

<p> And just about that time the First Murderer came in for his
share of the compliments. <ent type='ORG'>The Vatican</ent> Radio announced joyously that
one of the vilest of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> group, <ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent>, a man for whom the
aristocratic <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> must have felt a personal as well as moral
repugnance, was coming to visit the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, and, as I show elsewhere,
there was a month of hard bargaining, although <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> met <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
a few days after Ribbentrop's visit and they decided upon and began
the enslavement of the entirely innocent democracies of <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. We will consider later whether the
plot was communicated to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> like those of the <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent> and the
<ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> rebellions, but it went through with all its savagery
whether he agreed or no, and the Huns were already making a vast
shambles of the roads of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> when the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> "extended his
paternal love to the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Allied</ent> armies." It is said even
that he did not use the word <ent type='ORG'>Allied</ent> but Vatican officials felt that
it was expedient to add it.</p>

<p> We shall come later to discuss the very difficult question of
the relation of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> to the betrayal of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>
and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. Let us first get quite clear the fact that, whatever
<ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> knew in advance about the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> program -- there is high
authority for saying that <ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent> told him of it -- the
execution of which he never condemned, there is no question
whatever of his being ignorant at that time of the motives, and the
men. When he enjoyed a royal reception at <ent type='GPE'>Budapest</ent> in 1938 he
recalled according to a profoundly admiring <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer in the
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Quarterly Review (January, 1940, p. 109), some words of
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Pius XI:
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> "I thank God day by day that he has made me live in this time
. . . good and evil are locked in a gigantic struggle, and nobody
has the right to be merely an onlooker at this momentous hour."</p>

<p> Strange language for the Great Neutral! But what was the
struggle at that time, and what was Pacelli's contribution?</p>

<p> The struggle which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> envisaged in 1938 was not the
traditional struggle of religion and irreligion, virtue and vice.
That had, from the clerical angle, continued for decades and not
suddenly became "gigantic"! The symptoms of a new and formidable
struggle were the brutal destruction of the liberty of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> by
rebels, mercenaries, <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, and <ent type='NORP'>Fascists</ent>: the destruction of the
liberty of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>: the destruction of the lives and property of
tens of million's of <ent type='NORP'>Chinese</ent>: and the destruction of liberty in
most of <ent type='GPE'>the Republics</ent> of <ent type='LOC'>South America</ent>. These were all parts of one
struggle; the attempt of privilege and power to crush new liberties
that had been won and extinguish new claims of justice. We know
well on which side the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was. For him it was a struggle of
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Authority</ent>, and no group of bankers or corrupt
politicians had been more willing than he to enlist the services of
these new forces which called themselves <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm and Fascism. But
was their evil character, their motivation in hatred and greed,
hidden from him?</p>

<p> He was crowned <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, as I said, on March 12, 1939. Fifty
princes of royal blood, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s boast, stood round his throne on
the balcony outside St. Peter's when the tiara was put upon his
head with the usual formula, very fittingly spoken in a dead
language:</p>

<p> "Receive this tiara of three crown and know that you are the
Father of Princes and Kings, the Governor of the <ent type='LOC'>Earth</ent>, the Vicar
of Our Savior <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ."</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> papers, in the accounts sent by their <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
correspondents, smilingly explained away this Father-of-Kings and
Governor-of-the-<ent type='LOC'>Earth</ent> business. A quaint old <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> fashion of
speaking. It certainly was not to <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> and the field-marshals
of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> who surrounded him as he sat, tall,
straight, emaciated, his large black eyes shining in his long
olivetinted face. They had awarded him the crown precisely because
he believed this -- because he was a churchman who would, as the
<ent type='PERSON'>Jeromes</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Bernards</ent> of old had commanded, walk over the body of
his mother to do his clerical duty. And no other cardinal knew the
world he was to govern as well as he did. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers boast
that he read the chief papers daily of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>,
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, and <ent type='LOC'>South America</ent>: which probably means
that he read all the passages blue-pencilled by secretaries. He had
lived twelve years in <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and had travelled in twenty
countries.</p>

<p> It is nonsense to pretend that he did not know the real
character of his allies, the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, <ent type='NORP'>Fascists</ent>, semi-<ent type='NORP'>Fascists</ent>, and
the greedy Japs; and whether it be true or false that in October,
1941, he authorized the statement that he had always recognized
this foul character, we want to know -- not as a matter of </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
5
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>curiosity but because it is a vital point in our indictment of the
<ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> -- why not a single word of this kind, not a
single warning to the world about the nature of the forces that
were preparing to enslave it, was uttered before October, 1941, if
it was even then uttered. It was not possible for an honest man to
doubt that character after 1939: to profess a doubt any time after
the summer of 1940 required the peculiar heroism of a Lindbergh or
a De Valera. The facts are known but let me, for a reason which
will appear in a moment, quote this passage from the authentic
account by a <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> soldier of what he saw in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> in 1940. He
was taken prisoner and like tens of thousands of other prisoners
had to walk afoot to a camp hundreds of miles away because the
trains eastward were wanted for wounded, for officers returning to
carouse, and for their immense quantities of loot. The guards had
whips and laid them upon the captives "whenever they felt like it,
just to show us and the <ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> who was boss." Any captive who
accepted an apple or a bit of bread -- they were starving -- from
a <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> was shot or bayonetted. He goes on:</p>

<p> "Sometimes they'd make us run through the villages holding our
hands above our heads, cracking the whip all round the column. They
gave us no food. They were shooting all the time, for sport and to
show off, at anything that happened to be about -- cats, dogs,
hens, men, and women -- anything that came handy, and they were
hitting right in the head every time. After they'd shot a man
they'd pat their <ent type='PERSON'>Tommy</ent>-gun affectionately and wink at us. They
treated the old women and children worse than they did us . . .
These soldiers were all young ones. The older soldiers, who'd seen
the last war, were different -- less like crafty wild animals --
much more human altogether, and they don't seem to get the gangster
idea of warfare."</p>

<p> So they had acted in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Italians</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, and
soldiers and airmen of both armies in <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>; and this repulsive
blend of civilized savagery and looting was fouling eight countries
in Europe at the time when the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> "extended his paternal love" to
the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> soldiers and Cardinal Schuster visited barracks in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
and "distributed blessed medals to bring luck to the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
armies."</p>

<p> The point I wish to make clear here is that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, like
every bishop and priest in <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, had known for years that the
men were being trained for precisely this kind of "warfare," and it
would be preposterous to ask us to believe that his eyes were first
opened in the year 1941. Notice in the above passage the
distinction between the young and the old soldiers. It was
customary in the last war to call the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s "the Huns." While
pointing out that it was the <ent type='PERSON'>Kaiser</ent> who stupidly gave occasion for
this by telling his men, when he sent an expedition to <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, to
"behave like Hun's". I never used the word; though, as the
Kolnische Zeitung itself mildly observed, they had done "many
regrettable things" in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> military order of
<ent type='ORG'>Schrecklichkeit</ent> (intimidation) naturally led to such things. But
there had been a far more serious corruption of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> mind,
especially of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> youth, from 1933 to 1939, in preparation for
the present war, and any man who suggests that <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was not
thoroughly acquainted with a system of debasement which was </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
6
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>described with disgust by educationists and sociologists in every
country must mean that his vaunted knowledge of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
or his deep interest in the world's welfare and the causes of war
are mythical. <ent type='PERSON'>Dorothy Thompson</ent> and others described it (in Assault
on <ent type='ORG'>Civilization</ent>) as early as 1934, see Prof. <ent type='PERSON'>Schuman</ent>: <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and
the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> Dictatorship (1936) and other <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> works. It is
needless to say that it incurred no censures for the Black
International throughout <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, which continued to woo <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>,
the arch-corruptor.</p>

<p> Its basic principle was Hitler's declaration (the title of the
last chapter of <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent>), "What is Necessary is Right", which
<ent type='PERSON'>Rosenberg</ent> expressed as, "Right is what <ent type='NORP'>Aryans</ent> consider Right."
Since these new moral legislators had by 1933 the fully developed
idea of an <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> conquest and exploitation of Europe and for this
a vast and completely ruthless army was "necessary", they
immediately converted the entire educational system -- in the
broader as well as the narrower sense -- into a scheme for making
callous fighters. The training began in the cradle. Every <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
female capable of child-bearing was to bear -- in time government
officials said publicly that it did not matter if she was not
married -- and was to make her children war-minded as soon as
possible. One fool, the kind of fool whose writings the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> Party
subsidized, told the mother to watch eagerly for the first gleam of
the starlight of battle in the little <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> eyes. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> himself
ordered mothers to talk war and choose war-toys "until the brain of
the smallest child glows with the prayer: God Bless our weapons."
The boy not yet in his teens swaggered about with "Blood and Honor"
on his knife and learned to shout as early as possible because, as
one educationist said, shooting makes a youth "calm and cold-blooded". In school he chanted with his little pals: "We were born
to die for <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y."</p>

<p> It was far worse in the secondary (high) school the course
which began at an earlier age than in any other country. For six or
seven years boys and girls were drenched with the vilest <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>
sentiments Science was little more than a perversion of the
teaching of genetics to instil racial pride and selfishness. The
whole curriculum, such as it was -- <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> turned educationist and
said the aim was to "make bodies sound to the core" -- was
prostituted. So rapid was the debasement of education that in a
list of 28 countries in the Year Book of Education in 1938 <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
was fourth from the bottom. Hundreds of thousands of youth's
trained in these, schools are in the army today -- or dead -- for
they are accepted, if strong, from the age of 17, and 700000 will
pass to the army, submarines, and <ent type='ORG'>Luftwaffe</ent> in January, 1942. But
this intensive training in <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> aims is not enough. Hundreds of
thousands of both sexes were selected for special free maintenance
and training in the Castles of the New Social Order (age 15 to 25),
Adolph <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> Schools, <ent type='GPE'>Napoli</ent> (National Political) Schools. Here
the future <ent type='ORG'>Gestapo</ent> and male and female agent's, for home or abroad
received perfect physical training and what must frankly be called
a training in callousness and brutality. In the universities the
old type of professor was extinguished or, in too many cases,
turned into a hypocrite. <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> youths of the most brazen type ruled
the classrooms and the lecturers.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
7
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> Education in the broader sense -- the whole environment for
communicating ideas or sentiments -- was equally captured and
debased. Everything -- books (authors, publishers, and book
sellers), the press, radio, the theater, concerts, all lectures,
pageants, etc., down to village dances -- came under a Kultur
<ent type='PERSON'>Kammer</ent> with <ent type='PERSON'>Goebbels</ent> as President and a colossal staff and
representatives in every village. Prizes were offered for the best
-- most hysterically <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> -- books, and the callowest youths became
great writers. One man composed a Lord's Prayer to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. An
aristocrat, <ent type='PERSON'>Ritter von Taub</ent>, edited a Book of Popular Songs
including monstrous hymns to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. It is enough to recall a line
of the famous "<ent type='PERSON'>Horst Wessel Song</ent>: "How high <ent type='PERSON'>Horst Wessel</ent> towers
above <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Nazareth</ent>". The youth, a vile character, had lived on
the earnings of a whore -- but he had been heroically callous and
brutal.</p>

<p> This drenching of the mind of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y for six years before the
war, the most massive and effective illustration possible of the
truth of the modern science of social psychology -- that there is
no "mind" or "character' other than the sum of what such influences
as I have described put into a child or man -- has been well known
for years to every educationist and moralist in the world, and
certainly to every priest in <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y. And education was the same
during all these years, if less ably controlled, in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, the other countries allied with <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>, I still wait to
hear of a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologist who wall claim that <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Pius was
not acquainted with it.</p>

<p> Chapter II</p>

<p> NORWAY "NOT A CATHOLIC COUNTRY"</p>

<p> These were the men, these dynamic automata of a thoroughly
depraved force, whom the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> saw set out, with the blessing of the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> hierarchy, in the spring of 1940 for the speedy conquest and
looting of western Europe and (they thought) the reduction of
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent> by a ruthless massacre of its citizens, as a necessary part
of the preparation for that campaign against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
so passionately desired. How far this was the condition of the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> people generally does not properly concern me here but the
reader may care to hear what impression in this regard a very
extensive and varied literature has left on my mind. Let me point
out first that the account of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> miseducation which I have
given relieves us from accepting the worst estimates of the
character of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> people. That they are a tainted stock and
must be treated accordingly is pseudo-scientific rubbish. Such
sentiments as the above were during many years before 1932 confined
to a miserable minority. In spite of all its misfortunes <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> did
not sweep the country with his gospel of hatred and greed. He
needed the aid of monstrous lies, of very heavy subsidies from the
capitalists and of the cooperation of the, <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. I gave the
figures elsewhere.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
8
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The correct attitude to face the problem of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y is,
therefore, to ask whether all or what proportion of its people were
mentally and morally poisoned by this system which in its monopoly
has no parallel since the destruction of the medieval <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and in
its force, owing to modern science, has not the feeblest analogy in
any other period of history. The answer to that question is at
present impossible. In the spring of 1933, we saw, less than half
the adults of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y voted for <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. The regime of brutal
intimidation and elimination, and of national bribery (the world is
our oyster), of corruption of the young, and of the influence and
bold successes won by the indolence or cowardice of the democracies
began at once, and further millions must have been attracted. At
the outbreak of the war a leading Socialist refugee said that
three-fifths of the nation supported <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> without reserve one-fifth applauded his successes but disliked him and much of his
work, and one-fifth, the core of the old Socialist and <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>
bodies, were secretly and bitterly anti-<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>. The extraordinary
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> successes since then have probably won over large numbers. In
the summer of 1941 we would hardly estimate that one-fifth of the
people were anti-<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>, and Ambassador <ent type='PERSON'>Dodd</ent>, though not quite
consistent in his Diary, generally agrees. But a distinction on
paper between <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> and anti-<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> does not correspond to
psychological reality. Already millions who were carried away by
the rapid successes in <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> and <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> must be wavering or returning
to sanity in view of the news from <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. What is most painful is
the spectacle of certainly the overwhelming majority of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s
applauding such foul victories, but, besides that millions of them
have the moral lead of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> on whom they have
been taught to rely in such matter's, we have the consolation of
feeling that what miseducation could do in six years sound
education can undo. The idea that aggressiveness and covetousness
are "in the blood" is a superficial conclusion of literary men who
know no science and distort fragments of history.</p>

<p> However, we have here to confine ourselves to the relation of
<ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> to the wave of barbarism that now rolled
over <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>ern Europe and at one time seemed to have a chance of
completely engulfing it. Here we distinguish between the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
hierarchy and <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>: not because, as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s pretend, the
Vatican has or may have no responsibility for the former, but
because the case against the black army in <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y itself is easily
settled whereas it is too early to expect clear evidence on the
latter. Indeed, since the invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> automatically made the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Empire enemies of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and in a very
large measure involved the sympathies of the 15000000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> had now to proceed with the utmost caution.
Of the attitude of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> I have given
abundant evidence elsewhere, but nobody disputes it. It was united
and enthusiastic in supporting the war. From September, 1939, to
the present hour no paper has quoted any <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> bishop saying or in
the broadcast language hinting that these campaigns beyond the
frontiers of the <ent type='PERSON'>Reich</ent> were brutal conquests dictated by that
hatred and greed which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is now absurdly said to have
discerned from the start. I quoted the heads of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> cheering
on the troops only a little more soberly than the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> press. I
showed that when the final victory seemed to be in sight the
prelates, assembled in full strength (as they rarely were),
resolved to render solemn thanks to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and his armies when the
work was complete.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
9
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> You may ask, as some <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s ask about the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> himself.
What else could they do? If one replies that they might have done
what some writer's of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y (<ent type='PERSON'>Thomas Mann</ent>, etc.) and many writers
and other professional men of other countries did-express their
disgust at the foulness and cruelty, sacrifice all they had, and
fly from the debased country -- the retort will be that churchmen
have sacred duties to their people which forbid such conduct,
ardently as they desire to emulate it. One might justly ask whether
the duty to remain with their people required that they should open
their mouths in praise of the savagery and not at least have
maintained a dignified silence. And if it is said that this would
have brought some persecution upon their people we can point to an
enormous <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> literature in which it is said to be proof of
the, holiness of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> that priests and people everywhere
suffered every type of penalty rather than bow to iniquity or
injustice . . . But enough of this sophistry. The <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> government
never persecuted priests for virtue, but for vice; and, while some
did go to prison for complaining of the government's invasion of
the rights of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> not one ever braved punishment by saying
that the war was a campaign of greed. Nor does any sane man believe
that if the bishops had given an honorable lead and won a
consistent following the government would have shifted one-sixth of
the nation, including one-sixth of the army, into concentration
camps and aroused the anger of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, Hungary, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>,
and <ent type='LOC'>South America</ent>. The common-sense reply is: The bishops knew that
their people would not follow them. <ent type='ORG'>The Black International</ent> has no
inflexible moral principles. It follows the crowd when it applauds
a vile war as surely as when it rejoices over a royal birthday. The
myth of its moral leadership, its value to civilization, is torn to
shreds by the experience of the last ten years.</p>

<p> It is well to remember, when <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s airily reply that this
is not a criticism of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> but of local bodies of clergy,
that the supposed beneficent influence of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> on the world
must be exercised mainly, if not entirely, by these local clergy.
What, apart from his direction and control of their conduct, does
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> do? He makes "allocqtions" and broadcasts addresses and
issues letters, and the world takes no notice of them beyond paying
them verbal compliments. How much influence in the world have all
<ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent>'s sermons on peace had? If any, it was bad: it fostered
trust in <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>. As to the Encyclicals, the more
pretentious gestures of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, even those on which <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
apologists have written whole libraries, like the Immortals Dei and
<ent type='ORG'>the Rerum Novarum</ent> of <ent type='PERSON'>Leo XIII</ent> -- we shall see presently why
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s have said so little about the <ent type='PERSON'>Quadragesimo Anno</ent>
of Pius XI, which <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> considers at least equally important
-- had no influence whatever. The press was most generous in praise
when they were issued, but there was not a journalistic expert on
sound political or economic matters in the world who did not know
that what was sound in them was borrowed by the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> from the world
and was already a platitude in social literature.</p>

<p> The test of the moral usefulness of <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s is to see what they
say or do when one of the local or national hierarchies under their
control is corrupted by applauding iniquity or when a crime of
world-proportions is committed which should be envisaged from an
international angle. To discuss the first point would be waste of </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
10
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>time. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> lets his bishops in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> wave
the blood-stained national flag as vigorously as schoolboys. And it
is hardly necessary to say anything more on the second point until
we come to the year 1940. The rape of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and the barbaric treatment of the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> were the
outstanding crimes of that year. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> blessed the criminals.
The new <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was at once confronted with the crime of the invasion
of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>. He did the same. Those useful unauthorized agencies of
<ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> have put about the rumor that he urged <ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> to prevent it. Did the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> not know, what all the world
knows, that <ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> had as little power to prevent it as
Lord <ent type='GPE'>Halifax</ent> has to emancipate India? In any case there is no
evidence of such action.</p>

<p> Then came the invasion of the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>. I have shown two things in
connection with this. The first is that it is impossible to doubt
that the plan was previously communicated to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent>
has an hour's conversation with him on the eve of the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent>
Conference at which the plot is finally settled and the date for
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> to stab <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in the back is fixed. Can one imagine any
other reason for thus sending the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> Foreign Secretary -- for the
first time, remember -- to <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>? The second point I have now
made clear is that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> certainly knew the character of the men
who directed the campaign and the soldiers who carried it out.</p>

<p> I will suggest later what <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y wanted of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> --
<ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent> was certainly not sent to secure the loyalty of the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> hierarchy, which could be relied upon whatever crime was
committed -- and what the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, though terribly anxious and
nervous, hoped to get out of the invasion of the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>. Here let us
see what he did. The worst crime from the international ethical
angle was the invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>.
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> had, with <ent type='GPE'>Great Britain</ent>, declared war on <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and must
expect attack. while these smaller powers had been lulled into a
feeling of security by the most solemnly reiterated lies, and the
invasion of them had to be excused by further monstrous lies. This
treachery and the corruption by which the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s weakened in
advance the resistance to their superb <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> warriors the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
never censured.</p>

<p> Since there was no hierarchy in <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent> the
annexation of those countries does not concern us here. The reader
will find it interesting, in fact, to compare the proportion of
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in the four countries first invaded with the Pope's
attitude. <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> had only 2827 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in a population of nearly
3000000. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> demanded on April 9 that the country be handed
over to him, and, when this was refused, let loose the concealed
troops and traitors that he already had in the country to paralyze
opposition to the divisions he had on the way. The country
distinguished itself by its heroic resistance to impossible odds
when the blunder of its reliance on <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> honor was realized and
sustaining the struggle for two months and proudly resisting the
invaders ever since. Compare the conduct of this least <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
country in Europe to that of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. The invasion of it
was the most flagrant and significant aggression of which the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s
had yet been guilty, for the excuses put forward were not even
plausible. Ever since the beginning of the war, in fact, <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> had</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
11
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>protected <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> shipping in its coastal waters. But when the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
was asked to denounce the outrage, one of his unauthorized
mouthpieces explained that <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> had only 2000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and he
must think of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and not offend <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. I
give the quotation presently. The only respect in which one could
truly call the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> the Great Neutral was in regard to the moral
law.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent> had only 22137 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in a population of
3700000. One might almost call it the second least <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
country in Europe. It was a very happy, enlightened, and
progressive little state, a significant contrast to <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, Eire,
or even <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> (which, however, was only half <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>). Of the
deputies in its Folksting (<ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>) 64 were Socialists, 31
<ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent>s, 26 Conservatives, 14 Radicals, 3 <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s, and 11 the
usual odds and ends <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> doctrine had no appeal whatever
in that very free and stimulating atmosphere, so -- naturally --
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> did not shed a tear over the repulsive treachery of the
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s. As late as May, 1939, the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s had signed a ten-years
pact with the <ent type='NORP'>Danes</ent>, swearing that under no circumstances whatever
would they use force against <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent> or injure it. As will be
remembered, they gave the <ent type='NORP'>Danes</ent> no chance whatever to defend
themselves, just taking the land over in a rush as it had a common
frontier with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y. Doubtless the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> would, if anybody had
taken the trouble to appeal to him, have explained that it was "not
a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country." We used to think that <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s were interested in
ethics in all parts of the world.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, which during the Middle Ages had been under <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, was in a different position. It had nearly 3000000
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to 5000000 Protestants and Freethinkers. Its rich
colonial empire added to its importance, and although it was less
progressive than <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent> and Scandinavia, it had 23 Socialist
deputies amongst the hundred in its <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s had 30. You
will, therefore, not be surprised to learn that, when the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s
broke their pact with <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> and spread over the country with
great brutality and treachery the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> awoke. Defying <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and
his watch dogs in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> he sent a telegram of sympathy to the queen
of <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>. But I doubt if <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> minded. He knew that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
must be allowed to make these innocent little gestures sometimes to
blunt the edge of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> criticism in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and
give the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press something to be enthusiastic about. The
wording of the telegram was, in fact, very cautious. Its one
approach to censure was that <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> had been invaded "against its
wish and right." It rather reminds us of the timid sort of neighbor
who venture's to say to a man who has savagely beaten a wife or
child: "You shouldn't do that, you know." <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s seem to
have been quite satisfied, even proud of the splendid audacity of
their <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>.</p>

<p> Since it is as yet impossible to get evidence of the behavior
of <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to the invaders, such as we get in the case of
the traitors of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, I leave the question open. They
may, of course, have behaved quite differently from their
coreligionists in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. All that we know is that in
face of this monstrous violation of the rights of small nations,
about which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is so concerned in his Five Points of Peace, </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
12
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>and of the honor of international agreements the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> merely
uttered a very mild word of protest when it involved a country with
a large and rich body of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. Whether <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>
had had anything to do with the pathetic blunders of the <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> in refusing until it was too late to concert measures of
defense with the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> we cannot say, and I decline to
speculate.</p>

<p> The fact that <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> had included a good deal of genuine
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> territory had given a shadow of an excuse for invading that
country, yet the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, taking advantage of the fact <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> invaded
it at the same time, had vaguely censured the behavior of the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s (or both armies) in that country. The invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> had not an atom of excuse. It was the first
defiant unveiling of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> greed for the conquest and
exploitation of Europe. <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s were greatly disturbed
and pressed for a Papal condemnation. On April 12 <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>
correspondent of the Herald-Tribune referred to this pressure and
said that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> "declined to act" on the ground that "the Holy
See cannot participate in a political movement which would only
lead to further hatred amongst the belligerents."</p>

<p> That piece of moral cowardice and sophistry did not satisfy
people who had been reading all their lives that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was the
moral governor of the earth and an inflexible judge. On April 17
<ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> correspondent of <ent type='ORG'>the New York</ent> Times reported that the
Vatican would be little concerned if the war spread to the <ent type='LOC'>Balkans</ent>
because "no <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country would be involved." He added
that it was rumored in high Vatican quarters that through <ent type='PERSON'>Myron</ent> B.
<ent type='PERSON'>Taylor</ent> the President had pressed the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to condemn the invasion
of <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, and he was instructed by one of those
conveniently anonymous mouthpieces of <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> to add:</p>

<p> "While the Holy See strongly condemns <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's action and has
sponsored the attacks against the <ent type='PERSON'>Reich</ent> in the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>o,
it is pointed out that there are only 2619 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in
<ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent> out of a population of nearly 3000000. Therefore, although
the moral aspect is severely judged, from the practical viewpoint
it is stated that the Holy See must keep in mind the 30000000
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in its activities."</p>

<p> This muddled declaration -- "strongly condemning" <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y in
one breath and explaining in the next why <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> must not
condemn it -- and the letter of sympathy to the queen of <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>
are all that the apologist for the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> can quote. The above
passage could, of course, if <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y had protested, have been
explained away at once as unauthorized, and the telegram (after
weeks of pressure) cannot be called a condemnation. If one phrase
in it is so represented we must say that that kind of kid-gloved
ruling of a world in which greed and brutality had become an
appalling force is of no use whatever to the race. What sticks in
the mind is the repeated statement that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is deeply
concerned only when a crime is committed against a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country
-- it injures the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> -- and that his moral censures must be
trimmed in accordance with the interests of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. But even
this position, whether or no you regard it as morally respectable
and humanly serviceable, collapses when we come to study
developments in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. There we find the Black
International really at work.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> Chapter III</p>

<p> THE TREACHERY OF LEOPOLD</p>

<p> We come now to those parts of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's western offensive on
which the mist still lies, and charges of cowardice and treachery
and fiery denials shuttle back and forth amongst the <ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> themselves as vigorously as military men dispute the moves
in the campaign. Here, on the face of it, we find it difficult to
trace the action of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>, and recent writers
give us little assistance. There is so general an agreement that
there was base treachery to the cause of civilization that,
journalists, essayists, and authors are more careful than ever not
to "offend <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s." Most of them, however, make one honest
blunder which distorts the perspective. They take the conventional
view that both <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> are "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries". The
effect of this is to give the reader the impression that the
division of the country into supporter's of the traitors and
opponents of their policy was just a split in a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> body and
therefore the question of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> influence need not even be raised.
This is entirely wrong, and when we correct it we see at once that
the arch-traitors and their leading supporters, if not the main
body of their supporters (which is obscure), are docile <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
and their most bitter opponents. non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> require's a few words of historical explanation. Its
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism, like that of <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, is largely due to its inclusion
in the <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> Empire in the later Middle Ages, and its energy was
absorbed in a fight for freedom, in which patriotic priests joined
(as in <ent type='GPE'>Ireland</ent>) with people, at the time when other northern
countries were discussing religion and breaking away from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>.
<ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in turn ruled it to the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> Revolution, when
it declared itself an independent Republic. But at the fall of
<ent type='ORG'>Napoleon the Council</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent> put it under Protestant <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, and
the fierce struggle against that country to 1839, when it won its
independence, hardened its creed. To this date the <ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> had had
a splendid record of spirited self-assertion, but with the
expulsion of the <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent> <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> fastened upon the
country, with the usual consequences.</p>

<p> Further, <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> contains two different peoples, and they are
almost as antagonistic as the English and <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent>. Though one's
impression in travelling amongst them is that the Walloons in the
south (including <ent type='GPE'>Brussels</ent> and the great manufacturing towns) are a
volatile <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> people and the <ent type='PERSON'>Flemings</ent>, in the northern half are
closer to the <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent>, all are really of <ent type='NORP'>Teutonic</ent> stock, but the
southerners, whose daily speech is <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, are naturally more
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> in culture while the mainly agricultural <ent type='PERSON'>Flemings</ent> are heavy,
backward, and priest-ridden. I lived amongst them for a year and am
not here repeating the impressions of literary travellers, but
these few preliminary lines will suffice for my present purpose.</p>

<p> By the opening of the present century <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, of which it
was, and still is, said in our works of reference that "the great
majority of the population are <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s", was permeated with </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
14
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>skepticism of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> type. <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> literature had a free run in
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>-speaking half of the country, and from the middle class,
which was for the far greater part anti-Papal, this revolt was
spreading rapidly to the urban workers. I found it extensive even
in some rural districts. In my special research (<ent type='ORG'>The Decay</ent> of the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>) in 1909 I found that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had about 4500000
members and had lost about 2500000. The Black international
dreaded the new urban industrial conditions, as the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
leaders now do in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> does everywhere. They mean
the growth of free and informed discussion. And when, after the
war, Socialism and Communism spread amongst the workers as
<ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent>ism had spread in the professional classes, the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> began
a struggle for life.</p>

<p> The absurdity of the conventional statement that <ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> are
"for the most part" <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s is positively proved by the electoral
statistics, which here, as in the case of pre-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, pre-<ent type='NORP'>nazi</ent> <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and pre-<ent type='PERSON'>Franco</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> afford decisive evidence as to
religion; and the fact that this was true in the <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> era and
ceased with it will give you another indication whether it is true
that <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> is "a great admirer of democracy", as <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers say. At the last election (1939) the country
returned 73 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> deputes, to whom we may add 17 Flemish
<ent type='NORP'>Nationalists</ent> and 4 Rexists. Against these there were 61 Socialist
deputies, 33 <ent type='ORG'>Liberay</ent> (very anti-clerical), 9 Radicals, and 9
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s. In other words explicitly anti-clerical candidates were
returned by much more than half of the adult community. Even the
Senate had only 61 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s out of 150.</p>

<p> At the previous election (1936) the number of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
deputies had been reduced from 79 to 63, and a candid <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> writer in the (<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>) Revue des Deux Mondes (June 15,
1936) gives an interesting explanation of this. There had been a
grave financial scandal in which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had been "very guilty."
In order to "increase its strength and enrich some of its members"
it had "embarked upon sordid speculations." It is an old and
familiar clerical story. It was chiefly <ent type='ORG'>the Rexist Party</ent> that had
reaped the advantage at the polls of the exposure of this Scandal.
The Rexists are the followers of a young <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Leon
<ent type='ORG'>Degrelle</ent>, who marked out a path for his political ambition by
raising the banner of what we may call <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Socialism, or that
milk-and-water blend of Socialist rhetoric about capitalists (while
defending capital) and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> abuse of Socialists which the late
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> recommended in an encyclical that we will analyze in the last
chapter. By 1939, as the above figures show, <ent type='ORG'>Degrelle</ent> had lost a
good deal of the ground he had won, but he and his movement must be
taken into serious account. His ideal was Mussolini's Corporative
State, as modified in the Pope's Encyclical, so he was patronized
both by <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>. He used an <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> broadcasting
station to weaken the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> government by his abuse and to appeal
for "a joint effort of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> to bar the way of
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>." The usefulness of the movement to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y is obvious,
and today <ent type='ORG'>Degrelle</ent> is very active under the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s and in
cooperation with them.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
15
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The above figures reflect a distracted and disunited country
which the unified might of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y would easily devour unless it
kept up its old alliance with <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, which had saved
it in 1918. <ent type='PERSON'>This Leopold the Traitor</ent> prevented. On his own
initiative he had in 1936 renounced all Belgium's military
alliance's and pledged the fate of his country on the veracity and
honor of Adolph <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>! <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> still had a large army, but, though
the men are brave enough, its poor quality had been seen in the
last war. It is the fairly equal division of parties and the
influence of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> that permitted a neurotic monarch of poor
intelligence to assume such power. The country had alternated for
years between <ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> rule, and with the rise to power
of the Socialists it had Seen some unhealthy coalitions. Many
<ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent>s, as usual, supported even the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> they hated against
the threat of Socialism, but the Socialists themselves entered an
almost unique feature of political life -- into a coalition with
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s against the capitalists. I remember discussing the
matter in 1924 during a merry dinner on the Boulevard Michel in
<ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> with the Socialist leader <ent type='PERSON'>Denis</ent> and a group of <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
Freethinkers. <ent type='PERSON'>Denis</ent> laughingly said that they would make a deal
with the devil if they could get anything out of it, I reminded him
of the proverb: He who sups with the devil needs a long spoon.
Today Socialism is extinct in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the
Rexists rule in the ruins under their <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> master.</p>

<p> This is the true perspective in which one has to see the
question of the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> treachery. It would be well also for
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s to investigate closely, if they can, the movement of
their <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> ambassador at <ent type='GPE'>Brussels</ent>, Cudahy. It was stated in the
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent> press he visited <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>, then had a few
days with <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, before returning to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> to make a
defense of <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent>. There is little doubt that <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> and
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>ill intend to make it one of the terms of the final
settlement that <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent> shall be returned to his throne. No one has
charged them with an intention to see that the rights of the
Socialists and <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s also are restored.</p>

<p> What are the known facts about the great betrayal? After
refusing until the last moment to allow his military chiefs to
concert a plan of defense with the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> experts,
<ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent>, when the invasion began, appealed to them for help. We
know now that neither <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> nor <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> armies were properly
equipped to meet the mechanized <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> divisions, though the
preparation of these had taken years, but, while there is a great
deal of controversy about the campaign, it is the conviction of
some leading experts that even when the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s had thrust through
to the sea the position of the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> armies
in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> was not hopeless. There is fair agreement that lack of
ability and energy in the higher command of each was as detrimental
as the lack of heavy equipment. The most significant pact is that
it was the conviction of the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> cabinet that the situation was
not hopeless.</p>

<p> We next have the admitted fact that on May 27, <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent>,
without consulting his ministers, entered into negotiations with
the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s for a surrender. They at once closed on him, and at 4
a.m. on the 28th, while the troops slept and the <ent type='NORP'>Allies</ent> had no </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
16
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>suspicion what <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent> was doing, he signed the betrayal of his
army. It is further a well-known fact that the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> ministers,
who were in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, issued a statement on the 30th to the effect
that <ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent>'s act was illegal and unconstitutional -- in fact the
<ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> Constitution did not recognize any royal document as valid
unless it had also the signature of a minister -- and they deposed
him.</p>

<p> The evil consequences of this act cannot be exaggerated. To
<ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent>'s plea that further sacrifices, by his people were useless
a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>man might retort in a famous line of the great tragedian
<ent type='PERSON'>Racine</ent> who, when one character, excusing a fault, asks, "What else
could they do?", replies "They could die." It is, however, not
necessary here to discuss that. Leopold's treachery to his <ent type='NORP'>Allies</ent>
and to <ent type='ORG'>Civilization</ent> was greater than his betrayal of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. It
left a large <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> army suddenly isolated and fatally weakened,
and the men had to abandon all the equipment which it had taken 18
months to prepare and run in disorder for <ent type='ORG'>Dunkirk</ent>, where the lives
of most of them were saved by a memorable piece of heroism. <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent>
nearly had to answer for 100000 or more <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> lives, for it was
mainly the destruction of the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> army that he had -- one is
inclined to say sold -- to the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s; and he knew it. The further
consequences were even worse but will be considered later. The
treachery confirmed the defeatists in high <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> military quarters
and led to an even more disgraceful apostasy from the ideals of
civilization.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent> and his <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Supporters in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> today, protest
that he did send word of his intention to his <ent type='NORP'>Allies</ent>. He had sworn
not to make a separate peace and is uneasy on this point. It is
undisputed that no such message reached either the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> or the
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent>, broadcasting on the same day and branding
Leopold's act as one "without precedent in history", made this
clear. But it is not disputed. The question we ask ourselves is not
whether <ent type='PERSON'>Leonold</ent> sent a message which the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s intercepted but
whether he was stupid enough to fancy that they would not be on the
watch for any communication. The man is, like most European kings,
of such poor intelligence that one would not be surprised to learn
that he handed a message to the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s who kindly promised to
deliver it. But the whole story is so improbable that we may prefer
to think that Leopold's clerical advisers recommended him to lie
for the good of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. This would be nearer the millionth than
the first time in history.</p>

<p> But how shall we estimate whether he is likely -- there is, of
course, no evidence -- to have acted under clerical influence? A
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> king has two separate groups of counsellors: his ministers
and bishops. We know that he did not consult the former, who were
hundreds of miles away. The latter were in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, and this was
just the kind of issue on which they were apt to be consulted. His
dilemma was whether conscience overruled his oath to observe the
Constitution. It is the business of priests to solve such problems
in a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Court. One of the first to defend the king was the
bead of the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, Cardinal von <ent type='PERSON'>Roey</ent>. In a pastoral that
he ordered to be read in every church he endorsed Leopold's act
(<ent type='GPE'>London</ent> Times, June 18, 1940). The telegram which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> sent him</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
17
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>was before the betrayal and merely sympathized with him on the
invasion of his county, "against its right and wish" and trusted it
would one day recover its <ent type='GPE'>Independence</ent>: the least the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> could do
in face of an outraged world.</p>

<p> That the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent>, which could be repudiated as
unauthorized, went further and charged the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s with having
opened "a pitiless war of extermination conducted in defiance of
the laws of war" does not impress us. <ent type='ORG'>The Vatican</ent> was at that date,
as I will explain more fully later, trying to drive a bargain with
the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s and almost became bold, or at least less cowardly. It
published <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> war-news in the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> (to the
great financial profit of that paper, as no other <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> paper was
allowed to do so), and the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> press howled that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was
"the ally of the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Freemasons</ent>, the democracies, and the
English Protestants." But it very quickly lost this honorable
position (<ent type='ORG'>New York</ent> Times, May 18 and 21). <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> cracked his
whip, and <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> obeyed. A week later the <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> correspondent
of the most respected <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> daily, the Manchester Guardian (May
24), reported: "<ent type='ORG'>The National</ent> Socialist State has, it seems, been
able to read an understanding with the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> leaders." There had
been another plum-promises in regard to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>, etc. -- for the good boy. At that date, as all the world
knows, the juggernauts of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y were plowing red furrows in the
masses of <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> fugitives. The flower of Hitler's
training colleges in chivalry were treating old women and war-prisoners with the brutality which I have described. The traitors
and quislings were getting out their swastika flags. And the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>,
as I have already quoted, sent his "personal affection" to the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> soldiers.</p>

<p> The larger question, what benefit the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> might expect to
derive from a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> victory in the west, must be postponed until
the final chapter, after we have considered what happened in
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> today is <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, beggared, and dishonored. It
lives by making tanks and bombs for use Against <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
and food for <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s who keep their fat while Europe starves.
<ent type='ORG'>Degrelle</ent> has reached his miserable ambition. Having looked to
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> instead of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> he at first thought it prudent to fly.
The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s came to an understanding with him, and he manages to
accommodate the social-political teaching of the Pope's encyclical
to the merciless exploitation of the country by the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s. His
paper Le Pays Riel urges <ent type='NORP'>Belgians</ent> to "forget past quarrels" and
piously endure their new slavery. His party is the only one
permitted in <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>-speaking <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. Over the rest of it the Black
International and the <ent type='ORG'>Gestapo</ent> wield a benevolent control and there
is less sabotage than in any other conquered country.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
18
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> Chapter IV</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent> RECOVERS ITS FAITH AND LOSES ITS HONOR</p>

<p> There is no more pathetic chapter of recent history than the
fall of proud <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> from its earlier position as one of the
leading powers of modern civilization. It had led the advancing
nations of the world from the days of Voltaire to 1918. The
movement of intellectual emancipation which began in Voltaire,
<ent type='PERSON'>Rousseau</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Montesquieu</ent> and broadened into the period of the
Encyclopaedists culminated in <ent type='EVENT'>the Great Revolution</ent> that lit the
world. <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> idealism had already enkindled the revolutionary
flame in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. Now its light awakened a fever for reform in
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> and transformed <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. In the
long and terrible reaction which followed the fall of <ent type='GPE'>Napoleon</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> still led. Its revolutions of 1830, 1848, and 1870 are
milestones in man's laborious climb, back to the height of 1790. It
again led the world in the complete secularization of the state,
and, while priests mournfully predicted that this would lead to
degeneration, the nation fought with all its old vigor and heroism
when the test came in 1914, After 1919 every friend of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> saw
a change. Scandals multiplied, the old vitality was squandered in
domestic quarrels, and when the test again came <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, to the
stupefaction of the world, promptly raised the yellow flag and
bought peace with dishonor.</p>

<p> Is it a mere coincidence that this period of degeneration,
1919 to 1939, is the only period in modern <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> history in which
you will find a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> claim of a great religious revival? In
1909 I proved that there were not more than 6000000 genuine
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in a total population of 39000000. The only serious
criticism. came from the distinguished <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> Protestant Scholar,
<ent type='PERSON'>Sabatier</ent>, a high and very impartial authority on religion, who
wrote me that there were in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> at that date no more than
4000000 genuine, or as the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> say practicing, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. The
war of 1914-1919 brought <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>, with more than 1000000
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s back to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. This very natural development had the
unforeseen consequence of compelling the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government, which
had contemptuously ignored <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> and been heavily scolded by
it for 20 years, in increasing the power of the priests to a
remarkable extent. The <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>rs wanted independence, not
absorption in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and the chronic unrest of the provinces,
fostered by the clergy, gave <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> one of its usual
opportunities: we will keep <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> docile for you if you
will make concessions to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. As political security and
economic prosperity are far more sacred things than either religion
or irreligion the bargain was struck. <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> had
brought great wealth to <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> capitalists and, on the other hand,
they were the weak spot in the heel of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> if, or when, the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> war of revenge opened.</p>

<p> From 1880 to that time no <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> politician had taken the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> into account. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> statesmen are as unknown in that
period as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scientists, philosopher's, economists, or
historians of leading rank. Still in the period between the two
wars every <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> statesman was a Freethinker, except the
Protestant Waldeck-<ent type='PERSON'>Rousseau</ent>, but even the most skeptical of them
now showed an ostentatious respect of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
19
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> I was at <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent> in 1922 when the news came that the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> in
<ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> Minor had inflicted on the <ent type='NORP'>Greeks</ent> the worst defeat they have
suffered in modern history. I was in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Legation when the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> Foreign Minister secretly brought the news -- it was
concealed from the public for four days -- and the secretary, a
friend of mine, told me that the minister assured them that it was
with <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> help that the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> had made a sudden and overwhelming
attack. When I repeated that in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> the journalistic "experts"
leered, and a few years later a <ent type='ORG'>Harvard</ent> professor whom I met
assured me that, though he had himself suspected it, it was not
believed in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. But as usual the truth came out and may be
read partly even in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Teeling. <ent type='ORG'>The Vatican</ent> did not want
the <ent type='NORP'>Greeks</ent> to get <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent>, as they easily could have done --
I had been a few days earlier with a large <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> army within a
day's march of <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> which then had no <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> troops --
because that would enormously increase the power of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>.</p>

<p> This is one of a hundred instances of "the government of <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>
and <ent type='NORP'>Freemasons</ent>," as <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> had called the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government for forty
years, cooperating most respectfully with <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>. In 1925 I
attended the Freethought <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent>. The government frowned
on it and it was a total failure. But the canonization of Joan of
Arc brought out the freethinking politicians and officials in
crowds to attend the gorgeous ceremonies. After the blunders of the
fire-eating <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>-cooperating statesmen of 1919-1924 the
Radical's under <ent type='PERSON'>Herriot</ent> got power and tried to recall the
ambassador from <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> got the deputies from
<ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> to rebel, and the wealthy <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and even the
peasants with fat stockings, held back their money from public
funds and defeated a government which really represented the
majority of the nation. So the truckling to <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> continued.
The <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, as I have earlier explained, defied <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> and
expelled its <ent type='GPE'>Nuncio</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> turned to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, the alliance with which
was vital to <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, and the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> had to yield. In
return the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, to the scandal of good <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, heavily censured
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>-royalist body in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, on the ground that it
detected heresy in the leaders, and seemed to relieve the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
government of one of its embarrassments.</p>

<p> I have in these booklets so severely to condense all matters
referring to the period before 1936 that I must run the risk of
giving the reader an inadequate impression. He should understand
that the world-tragedy of today is far more surely the culmination
of the miserable history of Europe from 1919 to 1936 than it is a
consequences of <ent type='ORG'>the Conference</ent> of Versailles to which so many
attribute it, and in no case is this clearer than in that of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. Free <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> writers have called the appalling conduct of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> group "<ent type='ORG'>the Revenge</ent> of the Dreyfusards." The affaire
Dreyfus is generally forgotten -- the attempt of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> military
men and politicians in the last century to make a scapegoat of an
innocent Jew, foiled by <ent type='PERSON'>Zola</ent> and the anti-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> politicians --
but it is profoundly true that what is happening in unoccupied
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> today is the revenge of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> generals and politicians,
in the name of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and with the aid of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> bandits,
on the men and the entire modern regime of life which have kept
them in obscurity and impotence for more than half a century.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
20
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<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The preparation for that revenge covers the entire period from
1919, beginning with the prestige which the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> generals <ent type='PERSON'>Foch</ent>
Petain, and <ent type='PERSON'>Weygand</ent> had won in the last war and the annexation of
<ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> brought to <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> capitalists and
bankers, one of the greatest iron-ore beds in the world and to
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> bishops a very substantial reinforcement. So these brother's
in arms based the whole policy of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> on the cry of the security
of the country, the "sacred union" of all <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>men (or cessation
of attacks on the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>), and close alliance with <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>.
Since the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> press was in those years no more disposed or free
than the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> to tell the truth about <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, the
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> people never realized that from 1933 onward the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was
in close alliance with their deadly enemy across the <ent type='GPE'>Rhine</ent>, the man
who had sworn in print to trample <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in the mud and to reduce
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> to the status of a little island out on the <ent type='LOC'>Atlantic</ent>. The
same planting of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in high military quarters and in the
diplomatic and civil service is taking place in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Empire
-- see the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Who's Who as in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. It might be useful if
some <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> writer were to make a corresponding inquiry on this
side.</p>

<p> But, as I said, although the most important material for
judging the question of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> and the great
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> betrayal is found in the prewar developments, they must here
be dismissed briefly. Let us say that the country was terribly
enfeebled and its attention diverted by the passionate quarrels of
half a dozen rival parties, or of men ambitious to lead parties of
their own. The scandals in public life which occasionally occurred
reveal no worse corruption than in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> but they are more
fiercely discussed. It was the dissipation of forces that chiefly
counted. Even the sound progressive body of the people was split,
in virtue of the old jibes about Socialism and liberty and the
personal ambition's of politicians, into Radicals, Radical-Socialists, and Socialists. Read the appalling description of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in 1938 -- "like one in deadly sickness it neither moves nor
speaks on the threshold of an agony", etc. -- in J.C. Maxence's
Histoire de dexans 1927-1937 (1938).</p>

<p> Two parties chiefly profited by the confusion, the <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s
and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Royalists. The <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s made their usual mistake
of encouraging pacifism because "the capitalist system was not
worth fighting for" and of saying that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> no longer needed
watching. One wonders what they say in their ruin and misery today.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>-Royalism, which is the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> form of Fascism, grew
and became bolder every year. Teeling is quite wrong when he claims
that the developments in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> show that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had regained
considerable ground, but his acceptance of a world-total of
330000000 (instead of about 250000000) <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s shows that he
has made no study of this matter. I have elsewhere shown that the
estimates of <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers varied from five to ten
millions, and that the best of them and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Denis</ent> Gwynne
(resident in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>) regard the latter figure as very excessive. If
we split the difference and say 7500000 (in a total population of
42000000) we see that, taking into account the inclusion of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>, there has been no growth of the </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
21
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p><ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> since 1919. It is in power alone, in virtue of its intrigues
and its high military members, that the position of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
improved; and it is just in this respect that we look for its
influence in the betrayal of the country.</p>

<p> A small library has already been written on the military
collapse of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. When we allow for the folly of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, who
would never submit to sufficient taxation to provide an army
equipped like that of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, in trusting to the Maginot Line and
leaving their northern frontier practically open and their very
inferior equipment we still have, as most experts admit, a very
serious situation to explain, The successive blunders -- <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent>
called some of them "unbelievable faults" in the <ent type='ORG'>Chamber</ent> -- cannot
be discussed here. <ent type='PERSON'>Shirer</ent> sums up all criticisms in the phrase:
"<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> did not fight." He means, of course, not with its old fire,
perseverance, and ability. When he explains that this was due to
<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> pacifism in the ranks and defeatism amongst the higher
officers we do not quite follow him. The <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s were a
relatively small minority, and any <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> soldier who wavered
would get short shrift.</p>

<p> On the fact that there was something wrong in the higher
command and that, specifically, <ent type='ORG'>Wegand</ent> and Petain showed deplorable
weakness and defeatism the majority of impartial experts are
agreed. As these soldiers, on whose verdict that a continuation of
the war was hopeless the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government had to rely, and the
bunch of admirals, generals, and politicians who at once emerged to
support them are <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, as the immediate result of their
assuming power by betraying the country was an intensification of
the power of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, and as <ent type='PERSON'>Blum</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent>, Daladier, and nearly
all the non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> statesmen were opposed to surrender, we very
decidedly have a case for suspecting <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> influence. Only the
Vatican and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries like <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and
Eire fully endorsed the surrender and support the <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> group of
traitors today. It is, in fact, only because the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Press dare not, for fear of their <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> censors, even
raise the question of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> influence or inquire into the
significance of the rise to power of a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> group for the first
time in 65 years that many are surprised at the suggestion.</p>

<p> Let us examine what happened. At the critical phase, when
<ent type='PERSON'>Weygand</ent>, whose feeble appeals to the troops sufficiently show that
he was something of a defeatist from the start, completely failed
in his strategy and the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s were rushing toward <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent>
for some obscure reason took two well-known <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> defeatists,
<ent type='ORG'>Baudoxiin</ent> and Prouvost, into the cabinet. What we shall see
presently will suggest that this was due to the intrigues of <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent>
and other <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. A few days later (June 10) <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> delivered
what <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> called "the stab in the back," and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> morale
fell still lower. On the 12th <ent type='PERSON'>Weygand</ent> reported that resistance was
hopeless. <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent> appealed frantically to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> for help and
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>ill, agreeing with him that the reply was unsatisfactory,
consented to relieve <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> of its agreement not to seek a separate
peace. <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent> and the majority of the cabinet wanted to continue
the war, but "the will to fight had departed from <ent type='ORG'>Marshal Petain</ent>
and General <ent type='PERSON'>Weygand</ent>, and their example was contagious." On the 16th
<ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent> resigned, and the President asked Petain, "who responded </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
22
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>with alacrity," to form a government nearly the <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> group of
today. At once the senile Marshal (aged 84) asked an armistice
fatuously explaining to the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s that the settlement would be
"as between soldiers" who respected each other. Daladier, Delbos,
Mandel, and other of the old ministers took ship from <ent type='GPE'>Bordeaux</ent> to
<ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent>, intending to carry on the war from there, as the elementary
dictates of <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> honor, when not diluted with piety, required.
They were arrested and returned to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> as prisoners. Petain
signed what he incredibly called "hard but honorable" terms, and he
and his gang moved to <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> and began to spit epithets at the one
power, <ent type='GPE'>Great Britain</ent>, that seemed to be left to face alone the
appalling might of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y reinforced by all the resources, except
the fleet, of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and six other conquered lands.</p>

<p> That is the summary, condensed, of events which we find in the
most important and most impartial annual survey of contemporary
history, the Annual Register. But I have reserved for special
notice one part of the narrative. The thoughtful reader will, of
course want to know how Petain, a man (as subsequent development's
show) no more fitted for statesmanship than for teaching zoology,
came to be chosen for the supreme position and his bunch of
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> friends were waiting for his call. If I suggested that
this crucial development was due to the intrigues of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s I
should be accused of prejudiced imagination, but that is just what
the Annual Register states.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent> a docile <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> in good order at <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> and a
thorough defeatist, was, it says, "the most responsible for <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
politics at this juncture," When the government transferred to
<ent type='GPE'>Bordeaux</ent> he went there and, the Annual says, intrigued with all his
energy to get "peace at any price". <ent type='ORG'>Reynaud</ent>, not a man of
sufficient personality to meet so terrible a crisis and assailed by
rumors of an entanglement of an unpleasant character, was worn
down. Petain, on the other hind, was flattered to his teeth and
persuaded "by <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent> (who hoped to rule <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> through him) that he
was called by God to save <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. President <ent type='PERSON'>Lebrun</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Herriot</ent> were
dissuaded from shifting the government to <ent type='PERSON'>North</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent> and
conducting the war from there, and Mandel, Daladier, and others had
to fly secretly to carry out the plan. <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent> was taken into
Petain's group and became, when the members of the Senate and
<ent type='ORG'>Chamber</ent> (Congress's) voted themselves out of existence by 569 votes
to 80 and made Petain dictator, Vice-Premier.</p>

<p> In giving a summary above of indications of an increasing
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> influence in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> I postponed one item. On June 9, 1935,
the Papal organ, the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>o (quoted in <ent type='ORG'>Keesing</ent>)
recalled with joy that for the first time in 70 years a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
cabinet-minster was visiting the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and kissing his ring. He wore
the insignia of the Order of Pius IX, which had been bestowed upon
him by Pill's XI. He presented several sumptuously bound works of
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> piety to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, who gave his daughter a gold and coral
rosary such as a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> maid would treasure for life. The Times
(June 10) and other papers referred to the facts as another
admirable symptom (like Mussolini's bargain with <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>) of
the wise reconciliation of the secular and spiritual powers.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
23
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The devout <ent type='ORG'>pilgrim</ent> was Pierre <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent>, who thus entered upon a
friendship with the Secretary of State, Cardinal <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent> is
now so universally loathed that our papers will not even mention
that he is a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, much less recall his Papal decorations and
his close Vatican connection. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, a year or two later,
returned the visit. He was the first Papal Legate to be received in
<ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> since 1814, and he was very royally received. And at the
following <ent type='EVENT'>New Year</ent>'s Day there was a fresh Papal decoration for
<ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent>, and one even for the freethinking Prime Minister.</p>

<p> If any readers still hesitate about the share of the Black
International in the betrayal of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> let us consider what
happened. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> hierarchy at once at the surrender ordered
their people to support Petain. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, who mediated in the
settlement with <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, sent Petain a personal message and a letter
pointing out to the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> bishops that the new situation made
possible "a reawakening of the entire nation." The <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent>
surpassed itself, hailing "the dawn of a new radiant day not only
for <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> but for Europe and the world" (<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Herald, July
12). As all the world which was not <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> or under the
lash of the <ent type='ORG'>Gestapo</ent> considered the new day one of dishonor for
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and of evil augury for the world Cardinal <ent type='ORG'>Hinsley</ent>, head of
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, was compelled to ask what the Great Neutral
meant by this. The article, it was explained, was not authorized.
Even under Hinsley's nose, in his <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Herald, the jubilation
at the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> victory broke out. A writer said that "all that is
vital in the soul of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, purified and glorified in heroic
suffering, can look out once more upon Europe with a clear
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> purpose". Next week <ent type='ORG'>Hinsley</ent> had to explain to an outraged
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent> that that was not authorized. but the paper continued (see
editorial October 11, etc.) to rejoice, more discreetly, that the
action of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> had promoted the plan of a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bloc and had
inaugurated "a big and vital movement." Could anything but the
interest of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> inspire such glorification of cowardice and
treachery in a <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> paper?</p>

<p> Then the senile wreck, too dense or too pious to sense his
dishonor, began to set up the New Order in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. For the grand
(if exaggerated) cry of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" that had
once roused the world and was now blotted but as a blasphemy Petain
mumbled his new trilogy,"Work, Family, Country." Religion first.
The beetles, male or female, waddled back to the schools and
institutions from which they had been banished, with great profit,
for 50 years; the text-books were rewritten under Petain's personal
supervision -- surely a unique spectacle! -- and all non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
teachers (in a country with 45 million non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to 7 million
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s) were expelled or turned into hypocrites. This
development went so far that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s had to make Petain modify
it to prevent riots. Women were shut back in the Middle Ages, and
favor, even ordinary justice, shown only to parents with at least
three children. And the good workers were to be meekly organized on
the lines of the Papal encyclical which I will analyze in the next
chapter and the employers educated in that beautiful <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
spirit of paternal kindliness to their helpless employees which
had, of course, been seen everywhere until this modern atheism and
the urban industrial conditions which begot it arose in the
nineteenth century. <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> bankers and capitalists, who are now </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
24
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>falling over each other and fighting truculently to get fat jobs
under the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s -- are, in fact, now making fortunes by making
armaments for use against <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> -- smiled at the old
fool and his priests but encouraged him. No more Socialism or
Communism in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>.</p>

<p> I do not care to enlarge further on the spectacle of a great
nation that has been betrayed into misery and shame by a few
priest-ridden leaders, but the consequences to the few nations that
remained civilized were appalling. Soon afterwards I watched from
my bedroom-window, five miles away, the most precious square mile
of the city of <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, with its historic treasures as well as its
vast stores, dissolve in flames, and for weeks later I met the poor
maimed folk who had left their dead in the cinders of their homes.
It goes on. As I write <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> is deliberating whether to put its
fleet (contrary to the most solemn pledges) and its vast <ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent>n
empire at the disposal of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y for the final destruction of
civilization in Europe. And Papa <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> continues to bless <ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent>.
The one man in the miserable group whose sense of honor is not
smothered by his piety, is dismissed as if this were a disgrace .
. . <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> will yet -- next year, I venture to think -- rise again,
shake in the wind the defiant tricolor that spells out its old
trilogy, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," and prove to the dead
traitors and their priests that it has lost neither its honor nor
its vigor.</p>

<p> Chapter V</p>

<p> THE AMAZING FOLLY OF THE CATHOLIC BLOC</p>

<p> What gain did <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> think it would derive
from the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>? I have already
established two points. First, as is made plain in every chapter of
these booklets, no human consideration -- no thought of secular
ruin and the "earthly" suffering of millions -- is allowed to stand
in the way of the clerical ambition. We have seen it from <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> to
<ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, from <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent>. The pretext is that men's
"immortal" interests outweigh all these "temporal" disasters: the
fact is that the protection or recovery of the power and wealth of
<ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> comes first. Secondly, there is no room for
doubt that <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> was warned in advance of the conquest of
<ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and the intervention of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent> was
received at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, with much enthusiasm, the day before he was to
join <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> at the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent> for the final endorsement
of the plan of the conquest of the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>. It is absurd to ask us to
believe that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> was deeply concerned at such a moment to secure
a friendly understanding of which he had not the least need, with
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> about <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> affairs in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>. It is still
more absurd to suggest that he wanted an assurance of the loyalty
of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, which was never in doubt whatever crime
(not against the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>) <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> committed. <ent type='ORG'>The Annual Register</ent> says
that "according to Vatican sources" <ent type='ORG'>Ribbentrop</ent> had told the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in
April that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> troops would be in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> in June and in
<ent type='GPE'>London</ent> in August.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
25
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p> The immediate gain of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is obvious. Socialism and
Communism were just as dangerous to it in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> as in
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and <ent type='LOC'>South America</ent>, and a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> conquest
of the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> automatically involved the complete destruction of
them. It seems to me just as certain that <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> was promised,
or foresaw, the seizure of power in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> by Petain, <ent type='PERSON'>Weygand</ent>,
<ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Darlan</ent> and the setting-up of a clerical state. Think of
the situation, as I have described it. Since 1875 <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
had not only never had power in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> but had not had a single
statesman until the black <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent> wormed and bribed his way in. Now,
in an hour of profound humiliation and misery, priests govern the
men who govern <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. The price of power never matters to the
<ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>.</p>

<p> But a further very important gain was that the transformation
of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> into a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> state provided a new, and most important
unit for the Pope's plan of a bloc or <ent type='NORP'>League</ent> -- let us call it a
<ent type='NORP'>League</ent> -- of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> powers. As far as I can trace, this idea of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was born in the spring or early summer of 1940, which
suggests further evidence that he knew of the coming degradation of
<ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was at that time added, as a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
state, to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> could have had no
illusion about the value, on a world-scale, of <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and
<ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent> or the condition of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>; and the usefulness of the
<ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Republics in a <ent type='NORP'>League</ent> with European anti-<ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> countries was of still more doubtful value. <ent type='GPE'>The United</ent>
States, that exasperating democracy that sent so much money to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
but compelled its <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to profess such adulterated ideas of
the faith, might have something to say. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, a first-class
power, was a different proposition.</p>

<p> These <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> states were to be constructed on the lines of
the Papal encyclical of the year 1931 <ent type='PERSON'>Quadragesimo Anno</ent>. The title
-- the title of an encyclical consists of the first two words of
the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> text -- means "In the fortieth year" and is an indication
that if follows up the "great" encyclical (Rerum Novarum) published
by <ent type='PERSON'>Leo XIII</ent> in 1891. You may know how the world-press applauded
that encyclical and how <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> apologists still quote it with
pride. It went to the revolutionary length of saying -- in the last
decade of the nineteenth century! -- that a worker must have "a
living wage"; though the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, when asked by a <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> prelate who
was pressed by Socialists, declined to say what is a living wage.
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, who was firmly in <ent type='ORG'>the Secretariat</ent> of State by 1931, seems
to have thought that it was a good basis to build upon. I do not
suggest that he wrote it, though to do so required no knowledge of
economics. It is a very long and rambling document, mainly composed
of the familiar solemn clerical platitudes about the wickedness and
folly of the world and the deeper wisdom which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is ready
to impart upon all questions if men will only listen.</p>

<p> You may reflect that you never heard of this important
pronouncement and would like to read it. Unless you read <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> of
the modern <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> type I fear you will not be able to do so.
Though it is intended for the whole world it is written in a dead
language, so <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> meant each national branch of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
to make a translation of it. I have heard of only two -- <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent>. In <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> at least, no translation was published, and </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
26
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>there is only a booklet on it (<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Pius XI and Social
Reconstruction, 1936) which is a paraphrase intended to conceal its
crudities. I can learn of no <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> translation. Strange, you may
say, if this is the supreme effort of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> and Pius XI on a very
vital question and the document on which these new <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> states
expressly base themselves.</p>

<p> It is not really strange. It is a manual of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Fascism,
blending features of Mussolini's Corporative State, the medieval
guilds, and weird Vatican conceptions of modern life. Although
<ent type='PERSON'>Vichy</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, etc., appeal to it as their
inspiration it says little about the political form of the state
but clearly assumes that it will be a dictatorship. The main point
is its solution of the larger problem, which is very simple. The
desire of the workers to have unions is, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is gracious
enough to say, legitimate. But must not be <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> and
independent. They must be "directed." The employers also must have
associations -- you see the relation to Mussolini's idea -- and in
case of a difference of opinion representatives of the two bodies
must meet in <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> amity and come to an agreement. It reminds
us of the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> industrial experiment of <ent type='ORG'>Witney Councils</ent>, which
had already been discovered to be useless before Plus XI, or
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, recommended the idea as original and profound. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
does not say whether the workers or the employers are to have the
marginal superiority or how, in case they are equal, a decision is
to be reached. Such a deadlock, he supposes, cannot arise when both
sides are <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. They then see everything in the light of pure
justice.</p>

<p> But there are incidental passages which made it all the more
inadvisable to translate this gem of Papal wisdom for the workers
of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. What for instance, would they say to this:</p>

<p> "The workers, sincerely repressing all that feeling of hatred
and envy which agitators in the social Struggle so cunningly
exploit, will not only submit to but highly esteem the position in
human society to which Divine Providence has assigned them (p. 104,
<ent type='GPE'>Freiburg</ent> edition).</p>

<p> It is exactly the kind of language which the bishops of the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> addressed to the workers a century and a quarter
ago when they were agitating for the right to form unions. The
worker who sees the marble bathing pools, the rich banquets, the
spacious and luxurious homes of the rich on the screen must, when
he returns to his dingy and uncomfortable home, repress that wicked
feeling of envy and thank Divine Providence for giving him the $15
or $20 a week job. To do otherwise leads to Socialism, and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
settle's the vexed question whether <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> no longer condemns
Socialism. "No man", he says (p. 90) "can be a good <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and a
good socialist," The priests did not care to let even <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
workers see that. As to Communism, it is "impious and wicked", not
simply, as the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is now represented as saying, natural virtue to
be condemned only because it has not a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> basis (in reality,
a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> or priestly boss). There is to be no restriction on a
man's power to make a fortune, but the rich must be generous to the</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
27
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>poor. At the same time the <ent type='ORG'>Liberal</ent> and very <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> doctrine of
"free competition" is wrong. This is supposed to be a wise <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
middle position between the two extremes in contemporary life: a
wonderful example of that famous "wisdom of <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>".</p>

<p> It obviously did not suit the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> hierarchy to let the
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> public know that their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> condemned unrestricted
individualism and free competition, but the <ent type='ORG'>blear</ent>-eyed Petain, like
the sleek priest-ruler of <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, the truculent dictator who
protects privilege in <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>, and the scheming Dr. <ent type='PERSON'>Salazar</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent> found it a useful doctrine. It is, as I said, Mussolini's
Corporative State modified. You may choose to think that these
innocent folk at <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> did not realize that Mussolini's
scheme was mainly devised for the purpose of war -- to bring both
the industrialists and the workers under the despotic control of
the State. In any case the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> puts the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> above the state. He
blandly claims that it is "<ent type='ORG'>the supreme authority</ent> even in these
economic matters." That also would hardly suit <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, but old
Petain would not blink if it claimed to be <ent type='ORG'>the supreme authority</ent>
even in sanitary matters and sport. He had a vague idea that he
could, on the lines of the Papal encyclical paralyze the great
industries which by their urbanization and stimulation of the
people had certainly promoted the growth of freethought. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was
to be mainly agricultural once more, because peasants are less
quick-witted and anti-clerical, and in such industries as were
permitted the ascendancy of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s would be secured, not merely
by the control of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and State but by giving low wages to all
men who were not married or had not at least three children. By
long tradition, parents of three or more children in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> were
almost always <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s.</p>

<p> One would not say that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s smiled: they must have
roared with laughter. The old fool would serve the immediate
purpose, and their patronage of him and his insipid ideas could be
put on their credit side at <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>, which was expected to give
further help in the <ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent>n Empire and the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>. As I write the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s seem to be about to dismiss Petain to some country cottage
or home for the aged. The truth about him is breaking through the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> censorship. A series of articles in the Herald-Tribune in
the summer of 1941 by the distinguished <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> dramatist Henri
Bernstein punctured the Petain clerical legend. He proves that the
"great soldier" was a defeatist in the war of 1914-1918 and wanted
to abandon the English allies to the German's. His coreligionist
<ent type='PERSON'>Foch</ent> had to silence him. It appears even that he never was a great
soldier and "the hero of <ent type='PERSON'>Verdun</ent>." It was the priests who
manufactured his reputation. As I said, for seventy years they had
failed to get a distinguished representative either in
statesmanship, science, philosophy, or history, so in the miserable
prewar period., when they concentrated on pushing into power
political creatures like <ent type='ORG'>Laval</ent>, literary journalists and soldiers:
men who know nothing outside their special fields and are easy prey
to the clerical sharp.</p>

<p> Just about the time of the surrender of <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> even the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
papers began to discus's with respect the idea of a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>League</ent>. Whether they or the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> started it I cannot ascertain but
it became an important item in their new program of friendly </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
28
.
<ent type='ORG'>THE PIOUS TRAITORS</ent> OF <ent type='ORG'>BELGIUM</ent> AND <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent></p>

<p>understanding with <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent>. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> and
Eire, in <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, and Hungary -- and, I
suppose. in <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States -- began to reflect the glory and joy
of the new vision that lit the Papal mind. The great <ent type='NORP'>League</ent> would
cross the seas and bring in the republics of <ent type='LOC'>South America</ent>.
"<ent type='NORP'>Spaniards</ent>", Franco's newspapers said, "are the only ones entitled
to look after <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>." <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> were saving
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> from famine and collapse, and its press was telling President
<ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> that "his tutorship is unsolicited". Instead of a <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>
threat to <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States from <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> there was to be a
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> threat; and the main body of <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Catholic's
still praised Petain, <ent type='PERSON'>Salazar</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Franco</ent>, and De Valera. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
hinted that this was not all. The Pope's eyes began to brighten at
the prospect of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y conquering the <ent type='LOC'>Balkans</ent> and destroying for
him the ancient <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n, <ent type='NORP'>Serbian</ent>, and other "Orthodox"
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es which had defied the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> for more than a thousand
years. This mighty <ent type='NORP'>League</ent>, pivoting on <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, need not fear <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
even if he had won his victory and then faced <ent type='ORG'>the Vatican</ent> without
a mask.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s, I repeat, must have laughed. Now that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> was
sucked clean of vitality, or soon would be, the vast <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> force
would, if necessary, cut through these <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> powers as easily as
the smaller armies of 1940 had cut through western Europe. When the
time came <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y would take them all over into its servile empire,
their people the helots who would grow food and hew out minerals
for the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> workers and industrialists. Any doubt of that after
the terrific strain that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> onslaught has put upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
in spite of its mighty resources and superb heroism would be
ludicrous.</p>

<p> What would <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y then say to <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism. It would
disdainfully sweep aside all its trumpery <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>
institutions. It would enter upon a real "persecution of religion"
such as the modern world has not yet seen. If the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> murmured
about promises and agreements, the cynical <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s would remind him
how he was silent year after year when they made solemn agreements
and tore them up. It would remind him how through years of
corruption and dishonor, of bestial cruelty and ruthless
aggression, he had been silent or friendly, solely because he
thought it would ultimately profit his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. Shall we have to
write in another year or two that atheistic <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> saved the
<ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> as well as European civilization?</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Reproducible Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>The Bank</ent> of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
us, we need to give them back to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
29
</p></xml>