DE GAULLE PLAN AIMED AT FRENCH COMMUNISTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1947, Page 8

DE GAULLE PLAN AIMED AT FRENCH COMMUNISTS

[N.Zip.A. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT} BGNbOT't April.,l’4. The return of General tie Gaulle to the. French. political Jscgne is. being /followed, m Britain, some scepticism tempered , with curiosity abpiit Mi’s tactics. There ils •'sbmb. conjecture, whether General ;cfe "Gaulle -for a planned ebtip d'etat. The speculations include references to “fascism ■ ahd the 'suggestion that if he. persists With his policy the road will lead to civil war. The alternative, it is said, is a vain and inglorious retreat. . The Observer says there is ah almost irresistible parallel in the French political scene with the genesis of most of the regimes which have been loosely called fascist. It looks much like the Italy of the early twenties—a scene of Parliameptary Government in a state of near .'deadlock with an acute fear of a Communist dictatorship. . , ... The Communists in France, however, represent less than a quarter of the French people and are feared and hated by the other three-quarters which accounts for the strong Appeal General de Gaulle’s -rifovement is likely to make. . . He promises stability bn an anticommunist basis, which is , exactly what Fascism doe's. European Fascism came into.being as a reaction to the threat of Communism,,arid Very possibly it Will renew itself almost automatically in varying forms wherever the threat becomes acute. Possible Consequences The •Economist asks how General de Gaulle’s plan for guiding France towards future prosperity, strength and independence giving “efficiency, harmony and liberty” is to be brought about. If he tries to ally all the Deputies from the centre to the right behind him down will come.M. Ramadier’s Government. The policy of cooperation with and appeasement ot the Communists pursued by the popular Republicans and the Socialists will collapse. If that happens, says the Economist, what is to prevent M. Thorez, the Communist leader, and. his colleagues from wielding their dreaded weapon of a general strike and non-co-operation by the workers? The Economist adds that at 'that point the shadow of civil war must appear. If General de Gaulle is ready even for that he should think of the probable for Europe—the inevitable partisanship , of -America for the right and divided sympathies all over Europe, -greatest of all in Britain, the inevitable collapse ol the Monnet plan, and an end to.all chances of beating Germany ini the race to industrial recovery. , Reaction Of iVI.R.P. The Economist suggests that it is unlikely that the Catholic and Pro-gressive-Conservative M.R.P. is behind General de Gaulle since .it has violently disagreed with him in. the past. It. thinks it -is far -more likely that-his backers lie further still to "the right. It also thinks that General de Gaulle timed his campaign .badly. The New Statesman and Niitioh remarks that General de Gaulle may well drive the two French -Left parties into each other’s arms if they are confronted, with a new semi-Faseist threat. No doubt, it adds, General de Gaulle believes this is an opportune moment for launching an attack oh the Communists at home 'and abroad. “His efforts, however, to balance French politics between Russia" and America are more likely to end by •forcing the French people to take sides with Communism or with an imperialist alliance. No good can come of this dangerous folly. The would-be saviour of his country may yet drag it to ruin.”