The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1917. A NEW BROOM IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 48, 20 November 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1917. A NEW BROOM IN FRANCE

The Clomenceau Government is the Bixth that has been formed in France sinoo hostilities opened. In recent times tho rise ana fall of Ministries has proceeded at ft pace which is somewhat startling even when allowance is made for the notorious instability of French politics, and for tho fact that the fall of a Government oounts for much less in France than in England or ono 'of tho British Dominions. I ho rise and fall in Britain of as many "Ministries as luivo passed aeroßs the political stage in France during the war period would havo implied not only that politicians found it hard to pull together, tout that the nation did not know its own mind. This will not hold good of Franoe. which gives its politicians more, ot a roving commission than any British country, and at the same time holds 'them in lighter esteem. But in France, as in other countries, political instability in itself is wholly undesirable, particularly at a time when tho nation has serious work in hand. Even m Franco ® continual political ferment abound to militate against that continu y of control and effort which is supremely important in war. Un tnis account tho meteoric pfissago of Ministries in Franco, more than ever moteoric of late, oannot be regarded without concern. The llibot Government, which succeeded tne Briand Cabinet in March, held office for a littlo less than six months. Tho Painlove Government, which followed, remained in _ office less than two months, and its fall was tho more disturbing sincc it occurred at a moment when tho apnearanco of new dangers and problems made it more than ever necessary that Franco and her Allies should be enabled to concentrate undividedly upon the war. I he position now reached, howovor, has fca-

turcs which to an extent, modify tho regret occasioned by tho fall of another Government at such a time. It is unlikely that tho war jiolicy of tho new Government, when it is announced, will differ in essential features from that of the Painlcvc and Ribot Governments, or, indeed, that of any Government which has held office in France during the war period. Six Governments have taken office pledged to prosecute tho war with all possible energy, and one Government after another has fallen, not because a new policy is desired, but because the idea persists that higher standards of efficiency and energy are possible than any Government has yet attained. The elevation of M. Olemencbau to power is undoubtedly .another bid for efficiency, and the fact which now commands attention is the abandonment of the idea of the Sacred Union—a union of parties iq the nation's hour of danger which first found expression when M Vxviani reconstructed his Cabinet in 1914, and still _ dominated the political outlook in France when the Ribot Government was formed eight months ago. Ihe reI fusal of tho Socialists to accept reI presentation in the Government ! when M. Paihtjsve took omco in September marked the first definite step in the return to straight-out I party government which has now been effected. According to one of the principal Parisian newspapers, the Socialist Party delegates declared, during the political negotiations of September, that France could no longer be satisfied with Governments made .up of fragments from different political groups, and that the country expected of the men who took the reins a display of driving force. These ideas are about to be put to a practical test. M. ClExienceau has taken offico at tho head of a Republican _ Party Government, to the _ exclusion _ ol Conservatives, Royalists and Socialists. Many details of the developments leading up to this point havo been hidden—some of them oy the political censorship it is now proposed to abolish —but it seems to be agreed that the policy of all-round party compromise has been worn to rags and tatters in France. If position is in other respects dim-, cult, M. Clemenceau is spared the embarrassment of trying to please everybody at oncp. This, at least, docs not injure his prospects of satisfying the universal demand for a strong war policy and administration. , . ~ As the leader of a composite Government, based on compromise, M. Clemenceau would have been hopeless. In the role actually allotted him he may oonoeivably succeed. A man of admitted rectitude and energy, fully versed; m the affairs and demands of the war, he is well qualified, to formulate and give effect to a strong war policy. It is particularly to tho point that he has all along been active and outspoken in attacking evils with which previous Governments wcro slow to grapple._ He took a leading part in awakening the French Legislature and nation to the Germansubsidised and directed conspiracies which became notorious with tho exposure of the Almereyda affair, ,and in this matter undoubtedly rendered signal service to his own nation and 'its Allies. Of tho conditions created in France by enemy intrigue, aided by a certain amount ol internal treachery, the Paris Liberie wrote somo time ago:

Some weeks ago France passed through a period of heaviness and trouble mado up of welted blue devils, false extremist liows, and organised worry at front and rear. Rumours wero everywhere, wliuo suspicious hut moneyed agents/ issued from slums which have now to be disinfected. These did their best to turn strike movements of trado unions into a revolution for a lame peace. They Bind that tho April which Germans trembled, and which, no mntter what is said, was effective—had been a comploto failure; they exaggerated the losses; they pretended that there _ha<l been examples of treason and military revolutionary organisations just as in Enssia. . . . Packages of papers, advocating a Boche peace filled I lie trenches. This artificial crisis readied a degree of gravity that shows tho dangerous activity of its agitators.

These conditions manifestly justified M. Clemenceau's verdict: "It is time for the broom!" In the action it took against enemy conspirators the then French Government was materially assisted by the improving aspect of the war. The results of the Western offensivo, the Italian successes, and the prospect of liberal aid from the United States all tended to reinvigorate the sorely-tried nation. Now that the outlook is overcast in Italy and that there is a prospect of the war being prolonged, the enemy will no doubt redouble his intrigues and conspiracies in Franco and elsewhere. On his record M. Olemenceau should bo well qualified to cope with such an emergency and to enforce and carry out the strong policy _ which the general sense of the nation demands. Ho is certainly gifted with driving power. In the circumstances that exist his elevation to power is obviously a, bold experiment, but on some grounds the experiment seems to promise much better results than cauld be expected from a continuation of the policy of political compromise which has been carried so far with unsatisfactory results.