The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1905. THE CRISIS IN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 20 January 1905, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1905. THE CRISIS IN FRANCE.

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The resignation of M. Combes, though it represents a considerable modification of the political parties Win France, does not necessarily mean a defeat to the dominant Republicans. It is by no means wcy to distinguish the various shades of political opinion which represent the lines of party division in Frdnce. But since 1893 the old distinction between Republican s and Reactionaries (including the Legitimists and Imperialists) has practically disappeared. Within the last ten years the main political line of demarcation has been that drawn between the orthodox Republicans on the one hand and the Radicals and Socialists on the other. At the last general election there were returned more than 400 members who might be fairly called Republicans, -while the balance of the Parliament consisted of about 50 Socialists, and 50 Conservatives or anti-Republicsus. AJ} that is meant by the downfall of M. Combes' Administration is therefore that another Ministry will take its place and will carry out on perhaps less progressive lines the policy with which the great Republican party is identified. The legitimate opposition to the Combes Ministry consisted chiefly of the Moderate Republicans, headed by M. Meline, who was himself Premier from April, 1896 to June, 1898. M. Meline is a capable man of somewhat conservative view's, but his policy was swept into the background for the time by the influx of advanced Radicals and Socialists at the election of 1898. Now, however, the exigencies of party warfare have driver the Melinists into opposition side by side with such anti-Republican factions as the Clericalists and Nationalists. These two parties really overlap one another; but the Nationalists may be described as discontented revolutionaries who ever since 1900 have been exploiting a "national" programme for the purpose of ejecting the Republicans from office. The Clericalists are, of course, the survivors of the orthodox Church party, the inveterate enemy of Republicanism, and their opposition to the Combes Ministry has been embittered by the antagonism displayed by the Republicans towards the Papacy. The suppression of the Religious Associations in France and the abrogation of the Concordat have arrayed against the Combes Government all the surviving forces of the orthodox Church; and in spite of the decay of Papal influence in France the Clericalists are still a party to be reckoned with. If we add to these declared enemies of the progressive Republican policy those whom M. Combes has described as "the impatient and ambitious" members of hU own party, we can easily find reasons for the temporary displacement of foreee marked by the Premier* resignation. In the opinion of most moderate men not only in France, but throughout Europe, M. Combes has shown great tact and moderation in his difficult task of settling the interminable controversies between Church and In October he succeeded in carrying a vote of confidence in the Ministry on this vexed question by a majority of 88, in a house of 548 members, and his position seemed for the time absolutely assured. But it ia said that he has not been popular with his own party, which contains so many men of unquestionable eminence and capacity that there is a constant demand for a redistribution of portfolios. However. M. Combes might have remained in office for a considerable time longer had it not been for the unfortunate episode in which General Andre played a conspicuous part in November last. ' The Minister for War had been appointed five years ago by M. WaldcckRoussean, and he had discharged his duties with distinct courage and ability. But two months ago the attention of the Chamber of Deputies was called to the fact that under his regime a system of what is termed "delation," or espionage, had been regularly practised upon military officers, and that they had been promoted or kept back according to their political views. Clericalists were systematically shut out from advancement; i and the clerical party find in this fact a proof of an alliance between General Andre land the Freemasons —members of an organisation which has of late aesumed great political prominence in France, and which is the deadly foe of the ecclesiastical party. General Andre endeavoured not very successfully to thrown the blame for this "delatk<;system upon Lis subordinates; and during an acrimonious debate that ensued he was assaulted in the Chamber by M. Syveton, a prominent Nationalist deputy. The unprovoked and cowardly nature of the attack roused much sympathy for General Andre, and the Government majority was at once heavily increased. But General .Andre resigned. magnanimously refusing to be the cause of disunion in the Republican party. His place was taken by M. Berteaux, a Socialist of no special mark; and this was supposed to point to a speedy dissolution of the Government. It is believed that a coalition between the moderate Republicans and the Radicals, headed by M. Leon Bourgeois* who held office in 1895, has a good chance of success. But while events are developing in Paris we must

be contest te hope that no accident will advance to power any statesman or party likely to prove less amicable, to England than M. Combes.