CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24632, 31 July 1945, Page 5

CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE

DE GAULLE’S PLAN REJECTED VOTE BY ASSEMBLY (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ißec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, July 29. The french Consultative Assembly rejected General de Gaulle’s constitutional proposals by 210 votes to 19, and adopted the principle of the Government being responsible to the Constituent Assemoly. The defeat of General de Gaulle's Government in the Assembly caused a sensation. The Assembly subsequently voted in favour of the principle of a single sovereign Constituent Assembly, by 268 votes to none. It also voted in favour of the principle that Ministers will be responsible to the new body as soon as it is elected. Addressing an unusual Sunday session of the Consultative Assembly, General de Gaulle announced that the Government intended to stick to its guns in the dispute over the questions to be submitted to the referendum, and it would propose a specified division of powers in the new Government. General de Gaulle took up the Assembly's objections to the Cabinet’s referendum proposals. Many delegates interpreted his words as a . threat, to resign if the Assembly failed to support him. The Government proposes to ask the voters whether they want to return to the 1875 Constitution or a new national charter, and if the latter, whether they want the Assembly to exercise complete sovereignty while a Constitution is being drafted, or want to divide the powers between the Legislature and the Executive. General de Gaulle spoke unequivocally against a sovereign Assembly, which he said would expose the nation to grave governmental confusion. “This Government proposes to efface itself in favour of a Government resulting from universal suffrage," he said. “Something new is needed. It is better to search for it in the people’s suffrages than in an arbitrary government decision. We must give the people back their faith in constitutionalism.” General de Gaulle added that the Government would take the Consultative Assembly’s views into consideration, but he emphasised that the French Government needed assurance and stability. He recalled the terrible price paid before 1940 “because successive governments were subjected to bargain* ing inside and outside the Cabinet.” Making a,personal statement, General de Gaulle said: “I have no other ambition than to walk at the head of France until she regains her place in the world; but I could not reach this goal if I were forced to separate myself from those who were with me in the fight." ■ Prolonged applause from most parts of the Chamber followed the speech. “The three days’ debate on General de Gaulle’s proposals for framing France’s new Constitution ended in an atmosphere of complete confusion,” says Reuter’s Paris correspondent. ‘‘Whether General de Gaulle’s threat to resign is to be interpreted as meaning that he will do so immediately if the Assembly persists in its present attitude, or whether it means that he will resign at a later stage, is not -clear, and doubtless is not meant to be clear. “The debate will be resumed this afternoon.”