FRENCH PRESIDENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIV, Issue 10133, 10 June 1924, Page 6

FRENCH PRESIDENT.

NEW APPOBNTMENT

ELECTION ON FRIDAY. (Per Press Association—Copyright.) PARIS, June 8. M. Francoise-Marshal has virtually completed a stop-gap Cabinet, including MM. Lefebre du Prey (Foreign Affairs) and Maginot (War). All the members belong to the ißloc National, and-almost all were members of M. Millerand's or M. Poincare's Cabinets.

It is understood that the President's message to Parliament,, a draft • of which he communicated to prospective members of the Cabinet in the afternoon, declares that the new majority's determination to cut short his seven years' tenure of the Presidency amounts to a coup de force in violation of the Constitution, asks Parliament to state by an unequivocal vote- whether it sanctions such a dangerous precedent, and asserts that he has acted constitutionally throughout his Presidentship. It is a foregone conclusion that the Chamber will vote against M. Millerand, and it is expected that a new President will be ejected by the National Assembly at Versailles on Friday, and that M. Herriot's Cabinet will thereupon be formed. [The President of France is elected for seven years, by an absolute majority of votes, by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in a National Assembly, or Congress. M. Millerand was elected on September 23, 1920.] PARIS, June 9. The general impression is that M. Francois-Marshal's Government is only a prelude to President Millerand's retirement, which will be necessary after the Chamber and Senate refuse to accept the Prime Minister's justification for M. Millerand's attitude. M. Francois-Marshal takes the Premiership and the portfolio of Finance, while M. de Selves retains the portfolio of the Interior.