Selective Indignation

Selective Indignation SIR ARNOLD LUNN

I T WOULD BE DIFFICULT to decide whether Luis Bolin or “la Pasiona- ria,” a leading Communist in the pre- Civil War Republican government, would have more reason to be pro- voked by the joint review of their books in the Times Literary Supple- ment of London, earlier this year. The review, however, does conclude with an admission which tacitly ac- knowledges the debt which all who condemn Communism, including the reviewer, owe to Luis Bolin, for Bolin played a vital role in initiating the Nationalist revolt in Spain. “On perhaps one point only,” writes the reviewer, “can the combined testi- mony of the two authors be accepted with confidence. . . . This is that if the military leaders had not rebelled against the Republican government when they did, the Communists would have overthrown it instead.” And though the reviewer qualifies his ad- mission by insisting that this was only a “probability,” even the proba- bility of a Communist government is all the justification which a Christian_ could ask for a revolt against the government in question.

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About the Author

Sir Arnold Lunn

Selective Indignation SIR ARNOLD LUNN

I T WOULD BE DIFFICULT to decide whether Luis Bolin or “la Pasiona- ria,” a leading Communist in the pre- Civil War Republican government, would have more reason to be pro- voked by the joint review of their books in the Times Literary Supple- ment of London, earlier this year. The review, however, does conclude with an admission which tacitly ac- knowledges the debt which all who condemn Communism, including the reviewer, owe to Luis Bolin, for Bolin played a vital role in initiating the Nationalist revolt in Spain. “On perhaps one point only,” writes the reviewer, “can the combined testi- mony of the two authors be accepted with confidence. . . . This is that if the military leaders had not rebelled against the Republican government when they did, the Communists would have overthrown it instead.” And though the reviewer qualifies his ad- mission by insisting that this was only a “probability,” even the proba- bility of a Communist government is all the justification which a Christian_ could ask for a revolt against the government in question.