NEW FRENCH CABINET

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25091, 24 January 1947, Page 7

NEW FRENCH CABINET

NAMES SUBMITTED TO PRESIDENT NINE PORTFOLIOS TO SOCIALISTS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LJ-P 1 -* PARIS, Jan. 22. , .r Paul Ramadier has completed *V S Cabinet and has submitted the following list to the President (Mr Vincent AurioDiT— Socialists Prime Minister: Mr Paul Ramadier. Minister of the Interior: Mr Edouard Depreux. Minister of National Economy: Mr Andre Philip. Minister of Transport and Public Works: Mr Jules Moch. Minister of Agriculture: Mr Henri Prident. Minister of Education: Mr Marcel Naegelen. Minister of State: Mr Felix Gouin. Minister of Colonies: Mr Marius Moutet. Minister of Industrial Production: Mr Robert Lacoste. M.R.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mr Georges Bidault. Minister of Finance: Mr Robert Schuman. Minister of War: Mr Paul Floret. Minister of Commerce and Food: Mr Jean Letourneau. Vice-Premier; Mr Henri Tgitgen. Communists Vice-Premier: Mr Maurice Thorez. Minister of National Defence: Mr Francois Billoux. Minister of Labour: Mr Ambrose Croizat. Minister of Health: Mr Marrane. Minister of Reconstruction: Mr Charles Tillon. Radicals Minister of State without Portfolio: Mr Yvon Delbos. Minister of Air: Mr Andre Maroselli. Minister of Justice: Mr Andre Marie. Minister of War Veterans: Mr Francois Matterand. Minister of Arts, Youth, and Information: Mr Pierre Bourdan. Right Independent Minister of Marine: Mr Jactjuinot. Independent Republican Minister of State: Mr Roclore. Reviewing the new French Cabinet, the Paris correspondent of “The Times” says continuity of policy between it and the last Cabinet is emphasised by the preponderance of the Socialist Party, which holds nine Ministries, including the Premiersfiip. The M.R.P. and the Communists have five each. A Communist becomes Minister of National Defence, and it was over this appointment that the most serious difficulty arose. The M.R.P. was concerned

with preventing the Communists, whom they regard as under the ideological influence of a foreign Power, from controlling appointments to the armed forces and from gaining access to the files of the intelligence services, but the Communists themselves went far in making concessions for the sake of a compromise on the powers of the Minister of National Defence. He will not even co-ordinate, let alone be in supreme control of, the service Ministries. His function is to act as liaison between them, and he may take decisions in cases when two or three service Ministries are jointly involved. The Communists’ strongest lever is the Ministry of Labour, but this merely duplicates their existing control of the trade union movement. They have not regained the levers they held in Mr Bidault’s government, and their effective power in the new Cabinet seems disproportionately small in comparison with their numbers in the Assembly. The Communists, the correspondent adds, do not admit that a man should be excluded from a Government post by reason of his allegiance to the Communist Party. They intend, on the contrary, to accustom public opinion to the notion that a Communist is no different from other Frenchmen and that everv post, including the highest in the State, is open to him.