ANOTHER FRENCH CRISIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19383, 19 July 1926, Page 9

ANOTHER FRENCH CRISIS.

FALL OF GOVERNMENT. POWERS SOUGHT REFUSED. CHAMBER AND CAILLAUX. DICTATORSHIP REJECTED. RESIGNATION OF CABINET. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received fi.55 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Reuter. LONDON, July IS. Despatches from Paris state that the trench Government was defeated yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies by 290 votes to 243 on a motion of confidence. The Premier, M. Briand, and the members of the Cab inet thereupon resigned. Iho Chamber was crowded for the fatefill debate. The Finance Committee submitted a bill to definitely limit the powers of the Minister of Finance, M. Caillaux. The latter, at. the same time, submitted his own measure, which consisted of two clauses. The first was to authorise the taking of financial measures by decrees, and the second' to provide that these decrees should lie submitted to Parliament at the opening session of 1927, in the meanwhile tho measures prescribed to be effective.

The Finance Committee rejected the first clause by 14 votes to 13 and thus knocked the bottom out of the whole, bill. The fate of the Government then hung on the general financial debate.

Chamber and its Prerogatives. M. Heriot opposed the Government. He said that if the prerogatives of the Chamber were diminished he would resign the presidency of the Chamber. He made an impassioned appeal to the members of the Government to co-operate with Parliament, not to suppress it. M. Briand said Parliament would increase its reputation in the eyes of the country by sacrificing its prerogatives. The Opposition then moved to discuss the Finance Committee's Bill which M. Briand announced would be made a question of confidence. After the adverse vote M. Briand announced his intention of resigning. The fear that France would be placed at tho mercy of foreign banks, with the Chamber helplessly gauged, was mainly responsible for t-he Government's downfall. The majority of the Deputies opposed the raising of credits abroad, also the Washington agreement, if not the London agreement, Many of the Deputies were opposed to the idea of entrusting INI. Caillaux with dictatorial powers. In the course of the debate members of the Opposition quoted extracts from the Rubicon treatise in favour of a dictatorship discovered in war-time in a safe at I'lorence, the authorship of which was attributed to M. Caillaux.

Later, the President, M. Doumergue, accepted the resignation of the Government. He is likely to summon M. Heriot, who leads tho largest party in the Chamber.

France Escapes a Dictatorship. By the defeat of the Government and the resignation of M. Briand, irancs has escaped a virtual dictatorship at the cost of the whole of her finances again being thrown into the melting-pot. The wouldbe dictator, M. Caillaux, professes the utmost satisfaction: "There is no luck more fortunate than mine, he said. He was first to leave the Elysee after the Ministry had placed its resignations in the hands of M. Doumergue.

The debate which preceded the defeat of the Government was marked by scenes of intense drama. Speakers representing the most widely divergent views declared that the real issue was whether France was to pass from government by Parliament to government by dictatorship. This issue entirely obscured the real issue—that of meeting the financial crisis. M. Herriot was cheered by leaders as far apart in political views as MM. Tardieu and Marin on the Right and M. Blum on the Left.

Dramatic Speeches in Chamber. M. Briand delivered one of the most stirring speeches of his career. He said: " If Parliament grants the Government power to act X say it will increase its authority and prestige, and by its abnegation will conform to the wishes of the great majority of the" people of the nation, and contribute toward saving the situation." In summing up the views of the Opposition M. Marin said: "We refuse to give you plenary powers because it would be dangerous and would despoil Parliament."

M. Marin concluded by pointing at M. Caillaux and saying: I will add that if it were necessary to confer exceptional powers on any man it would not be on you. I will not recall your past, but it is one which has disadvantages that divides Frenchmen into two camps. Caillaux's Second Defeat.

Then came the division. Amid cheers were heard cries of: "This means the franc at 300 to the pound." The Ministers, headed by M. Briand, filed silently out of the Chamber. M. Caillaux, who was recently hailed as "the saviour of the franc saw himself for the second time refused a chance of applying his plans.

The feeling in French political circles is that an attempt will now be made to form a Cabinet of a National Union, embracing MM. Poincare and Heriot.

The news of the downfall of the Government was received with surprise in London political and financial circles. The Paris correspondent of the Sunday Times says M. Briand, in the course of his speech, said that if action was not taken in eieht days France would be plunged into a financial catastrophe.

American Debt Settlement. Messages from Paris on Friday stated that the fall of the franc had attained an impetus which was increasingly hard to check. This could only be explained by the nervousness due to the continued uncertainty regarding the political and financial situation. Parliament and the country were still in the dark as regards the details of M. CaiLlaux's financial proposals. The Treasury was practically empty and the Government was existing on the sufferance of 22 votes, the renewal of which depended on the adoption of its concrete programme. ,

Furthermore satisfaction at the AngloFrench debt agreement' had been mitigated bv doubts as to whether Washington would follow London's lead in the matter of the safeguarding clause. A message from Washington, aroused by a comparison of France's debt settlement agreements with England ana the United States, states that. the Secretary to the Treasury. Mr. A. W. Mellon, on Friday issued a formal statement This said : "No other creditors of France have accorded such generous treatment to her as America has done." The exchange rate for the French franc in London on Friday opened at 20.1.50 to the pound and later was at 204.50. It closed at 201.75. The Belgian closed at L' 05.50.

EUROPEAN FINANCE. TALK OF A CONFERENCE. BANKERS DUE IN PARIS. (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Reuter. PARIS, July IS. There is renewed talk in Paris of a great financial conference regarding European finance, especially that of trance. In this connection the press attaches significance to the fact that Mr. Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England, and Mr. B. Strong, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who are on holiday trips, are to arrive in Paris to-day. It is also noted that Mr. A. W. Mellon, United States Secretary to the Treasury, and Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the American financier, are on the way to Europe.