NEEDS A LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 95, 23 April 1934, Page 3

NEEDS A LEADER

THE PLIGHT OF FRANCE

OLD MEN RULING AGAIN

AX UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The- crisis that shook France during ,hu second week in February was purely Ibe affair of Paris. The provinces were displeased, and disliked it all intensely, because they did not understand what was happening, writes BrigadierGeneral ft. L. Spears in the London. "Daily Telegraph."

'' We will not have revolution by telegram," they said. The shrewd, .slowmoving peasants, the- peaceful bourgeoisie of the little towns, and, indeed, of the groat ones, too, wcro. shocked and frightened to see' two Governments in succession fall at the threat of riots liy the Paris mob. ■ What did they care about M. Chiappc, the Prefect of Police, and whether he was dismissed or not The Stavisky scandal? It only proved there were lots of things wrong in the capital. It. all came of trying to acquire money in new-fangled ways instead of just toiling and saving according to the tradition of Trance.

In fact, the provinces had an uncomfortable feeling that something very liko a Fascist coup had been attempted and had failed, whereas the Paris bourgeoisie were, on the contrary, persuaded Ihat they had narrowly escaped a die-? tatorship of tho Left. The result of this frame of mind in the country is that were there an election now the provinces would in all probability return the, same paralysing Left majority which has proved itself incapable of governing. RED BELT OP PARIS. Paris, on the other hand,, is pleased with itself. It feels that it has given Parliament a richly deserved lesson, that it has struck a blow on behalf of honest government that will not easily be forgotten. ■ But the Paris you can sec today, spifck and span, as if nothing had .happened with tho beautiful illuminated fountains playing in the Place de la Concorde as if a short time ago cavalry had not been charging across it, forgets that the trado unions, the unions of officials, and the workers of the Red Belt in Paris and the great industrial cities, completely paralysed the nation for twenty-four hours at the behest of their leaders.

It is the fashion to belittle : the general strike of February 12, and to say it did not fulfil the expectations of" those who planned it. It, may be true that the middle classes, who ,are steadily organising themselves, may in future be able to negative a prolonged general strike as wo did ourselves, and that a strong Government could deal with it as Briand dealt with the railway strike by mobilising the workers; but the fact remains that on February 12 the organisations of the Left revealed themselves to be very strong ' inclccd.

Today all is calm. There is no sign of resentment against the police, but most people realise that this is but a lull, a truce, an act of national deferonce to the lovable old man, Doumevgno. who commands the absolute trust of all, and who in tho twilight of a long and useful life has made tho great sacrifice of his well-earned peace in deference to his country's c.ill.

How long will that truce last? It is perhaps hardly realised here how great was the danger which the fall of the Daladici- Government averted. JUST IN TIME. "Whom Daladici', who hnd tried so '.ard-to form a Government, wlto had forfeited the support of the Right by sacrificing .the Prefect of Police, Chiappe, ami who did not dare defy Paris and rely on Socialist support, resigned the seals of office, ho did so only just in time. The people, this time in arms, were pouring into the streets again. Tho troops would not have marched against the demonstrators. Their leaders revolted nt the idea of shooting down their old comrades. It is doubtful if the Prime Minister and his colleagues would have been dofended by any but M. Blum's adherents, the undisciplined masses of the Red workers, behind whom lurked tho revolutionary and criminal hordes of tho Red Belt. The stronger, better organised, more determined, and far angrier middle-class demonstrators would have carried tho day, but not without Woodshed. If there had been more, bloodshed no one can say to what lengths public indignation would have gone. With no strong man to tako charge, anarchy might have gained the day.

Now peace reigns in Paris once more, but it may be only a lull.

All tho Daladier team of young men have been swept away with their leader, and the country has turried again, as it has done so often before, to tho old men it knows and trusts.

Gaston Doumergue, ex-President of the Republic, forced back into the turmoil of affairs ho had long ago determined to abandon for ever, has had to leave his sunny garden near Toulouse, his bees and his flowers, to sit once more in the high tapestried rooms of the Prime Minister. Marshal Pctaiu, who saved tho French armies after the mutinies of 1917, and who is now 78 years fid, is at the Ministry of War; BarIhou, another old man, is at the Foreign Office. ALL SAVE SOCIALISTS. Doumerguo, such is his prestige, has drawn into his Cabinet the leaders of all parties save tho. Socialists. Hcrriot fits at peace with Tardicn. All have undertaken not to make public speeches, a severe restriction when,1-as in the case of Tardicu, there exists a belief that a campaign in the country would rally it to his standard and ruin tho prospects of the Radical Socialists, who form the majority in the. present Chamber.

It is very unlikely that the present Government can last for long. The old Prime Minister has but. one weapon in his armoury when facing Parliament, (lie threat of returning to his distant country home. It is twenty years sineo ho spoke in the Chamber, and in that space of time Parliamentary manners have sadly deteriorated. Conditions had, in fact, become almost anarchical under the last President of the Chamber, the Socialist Ferdinand Euisson. Speakers got into flic way of speaking on any subject without restriction, .shouting and illmannered interruptions were the commonplace of debate, and tho lobbies, if not the floor of the House, wore the scenes of not infrequent disputes.

Such conditions impose a heavy j Pi1 ruin on an old man, even it' ho is in robust health. When M. Doumcrguc made his first speech in the Chamber the extreme Left did their best to shout him clown. Ho will get his Budget voted, then no doubt he will givo the Deputies a holiday, but it cannot bo a long one. And then? Who can tell? A dissolution perhaps. M. Doumergue has enough prestige to obtain tho necessary Presidential decree, backed by a twothirds majority vote of the Senate. AN OLD TRADITION. A General Election would no doubt do good in some ways, but it. would not necessarily mean that complete change nnd rcvitalisatipn the Trench people long for. There is not much to be hoped for from the old political teams. Whilst the mob was fighting to penetrate the Chamber on that sinister Tuesday night of February 0 they were playing the old parlr game, the only one they knew. Some ' of: their members had to be

chased by furious crowds yelling "a la Seine" for them to realise that things were perhaps not normal. Others who had their clothes torn off and were severely handled may now be persuaded that democracy does not necessarily consist of groups fighting for power and its spoils.

In the provinces for sixty years or so all tho parties of tho Left have voted together, bargained and helped each other at tho polls. That tradition will not be broken. The parties of the Bight will tend to -coalesce, arid above all to organise. In a few weeks people will bo calmer, and they rieed to be. If an election took place immediately there would bo bloodshed, for most Frenchmen have weapons, and in a crisis do not hesitate to use them; but, as the Government is. fully aware of the danger there is no fear of this risk being run.

Far more serious is the likelihood Hint the cleavage between Lei't and Right will increase in bitterness. If I each side fears that the other may at-1 tempt to seize power there is a possibility that they may try to anticipate each other. It will require all the Prime Minister's prestige, and considerable self-sacrifice on the part of the political leaders in his Cabinet, to prevent the present distrust developing into something worse. FINANCIAL PEOBLEM. The economic condition of the country is net such as to improve tempers. The peasants and middle classes would riso in revolt if tho franc, which not so long ago was depreciated four-fifths of its value, were depreciated further. , Yet French" currency is so high com-1 pared with that of other countries that the cost of living .in the towns is exorbitant and French exporters find it • increasingly difficult to find markets, indeed, they have been reduced to introducing a'system that has led to their quarrelling with half the world in an endeavour to protect their home markets from the goods, produced in coun-j tries with lower currencies.

One thing is quite certain; neither the present Government nor any that is likely to emerge from tho elections—if there are any—will be able to cope with tho formidable programme of constitutional and. Parliamentary reform so many people yearn for. Still less, indeed, could it take those drastic steps which would re-estnblisli public confidence, iii the administration of tho country and free it from the subterranean political influences tho people loathe. . ' ■ ~

France longs for a leader,^but, whoever he be, unless ho emerges from a period of chaos he can ill dispense with the cloak of Republican democracy. He may fling it o.ver his right shoulder or over his left; he cannot discard it.

In the absence of such a leader many people are asking themselves what will happen when' the old men are too weary to go on governing, now that so many of the younger ones have been proved inadequate.