FALL OF FRENCH CABINET

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25553, 22 July 1948, Page 5

FALL OF FRENCH CABINET

President Looks For Successor

“TASK OF GREAT DIFFICULTY ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 21. Il “The President of France (Mr Vincent Auriol) spent all day yesterday seeing party leaders, but late last night nothing was certain except that the task of forming a new Government will be one of very great difficulty,” says the Paris correspondent of “The Times.”

“Dissolution of the Assembly, followed by a general election, is still a possibility. “Meanwhile, the Socialists who precipitated the downfall of Mr Schuman’s Government are coming in for hard criticism from Right Wing and Independent papers. Many commenta-

tors make the point that with the international situation as It is this was a disastrous moment to cause a crisis without ’. visible solution, and dispatches from French correspondents in London and Washington all emphasise that foreign opinion is also the same.” Reuter says that although the fall of Mr Schuman’s Government is likely to delay the Western Powers’ reply to the Soviet Note on the Berlin blockade, diplomatic quarters in London do not consider that it has caused an international crisis. Reuter adds that the formation of a new French Cabinet is not expected to cause a big change in French foreign policy. Mr Auriol yesterday morning discussed the Cabinet crisis with the Communist leaders, Mr Thorez and Mr Billoux, and later he saw Mr Guy Mollet, secretary-general of the Socialist Party. Mr Mollet told journalists after the meeting, “We shall certainly come back.” It is thought unlikely that the Communists will participate in the new Government. Burial of General Pershing.—Tens of thousands of Americans stood bareheaded in the rain as the body of General Pershing, the commander of the American troops in the First World War, was taken to the Arlington National Cemetery. President Trur man, General Marshall, General Eiseijhower, and other high military officials and civilian dignitaries, attended the funeral—New York, July 20.