RECOVERY IN FRANCE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4806, 5 July 1939, Page 6

RECOVERY IN FRANCE

NATIONAL SPIRIT AROUSED. Six months ago the French nation seemed almost to. have succumbed to her internal dissensions (notes The Times). To the long-standing cleavages between workers and employers was added a violent quarrel over external policy, which divided every political party from the extreme Right to the extreme Left into apparently irreconcilable camps. Many patriotic Frenchmen openly despaired of the future of the country; and across the borders there was an obvious tendency to regard France as no longer a first-class Power, as almost a negligible factor in international politics. But the national spirit was not dead, merely dormant; and the reawakening of the past few months has justified those both at home and abroad who refused to lose confidence. Ths revival must be associated with the names of the Premier (M. Daladier) and the Finance Minister (M. Reynaud). When the national spirit seemed at its lowest M. Reynaud had the courage to appeal for fresh sacrifices, in the shape of stringent economies and heavier taxation to restore financial equilibrium; and he did go with a confidence which proved infectious and in itself was an effective contribution to recovery. M. Daladier showed the same courage and the same confidence in facing the crisis of the general strike of last November and in his reply to the campaign of intimidation launched against France in the Italian press.