FRENCH NAVAL MISHAPS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 October 1908, Page 7

FRENCH NAVAL MISHAPS

NEW MINISTER. AN ENGINEER, NOT A POLITICIAN. (BT TBLKGKArH— I'BESS ASSOCIATION— COrrulailT.) (Reo. October 22, 9.45 p.m.) Paris, October 22. M. Picard, an engineer, not a politician, succeeds M. Thomson as French Minister for Marino. PRESIDENT'S POWER RE MINISTRY.' Under the French Constitution, tho President —who is elected for seven years, by an absolute majority of votes, by the and tlio Chamber of Deputies united in a National Assembly or 'Congress—solecis the Ministry. Ministers aro generally selected from the two Chambers, but the President may, as in the present case, choose a Minister who is not a member of either Chamber. Familiar examples of the exercise of this power are the appointment of a general as Minister for War or of an admiral (or, in this case, an engineer) as Minister for Marine. M. Thomson, ox-Minister for Marine, foil because of the state cf disorganisation in the navy, illustrated by many mishaps. The President no doubt looks to a technical expert to reduce chaos to order. The immediate cause of , tho Minister's downfall was tho circumstances connected with the disastrous explosion on the battleship Jena. "It is the system of irresponsibility and general indifference that leads to disasters such as that of the Jena, and will- bring more in its train." These aro the words of the French commission of inquiry, which also found tjiat: "Administrative anarchy reigns in the organisation. The officers complain that they receive no ordors, arid indeed the hoart-rending inefficiency of the central power is the cause of the growing enfecblement of our naval forces."