THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1928. THE FRENCH CHAMBER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19963, 4 June 1928, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1928. THE FRENCH CHAMBER.

The French Chamber of Deputies has just met for the first time since the recent general election. Proceedings were entirely formal. Their significance was small, this being explained by the statement that there was little change in the party groups, even in a chamber where half the members are new. M. Poincare will continue Prime Minister, with M. Briand closely associated with him. There is no other possibility in immediate prospect. The stability of the position is indicated by the fact that only one Cabinet change is considered worthy of mention in the cabled reports. A new Minister of Labour must be found to replace M. Fallieres, who lost his seat in the election. The result will be continuity in the financial policy M. Poincare inaugurated when, the franc being at its lowest ebb and the national exchequer almost empty, he was called to power some two years ago. Further, M. Briand's foreign policy will .continue; with all the faults that can be found in it, there is more adaptability about it, and more promise of conciliation, than in the course pursued by any other Foreign Minister since the war ended. It is true that even with a victory for the forces of the Left, he would probably have been retained at the Quai d'Orsay, for his party attachments are very loose, and he is accepted nationally as the man for the position. As it happens, he will be able to continue his work without any disturbance of routine, just as, given the party alignment reasonably to be expected in the new Chamber, M. Poincare will proceed with his efforts to stabilise the national finances.

The position of M. Poincare in the Government when the last chamber was dissolved was one of apparent weakness, in which lay its real strength. Before the election of 19-24, he had been head of a Government formed by what was known as the Bloc National, a combination with a majority of moderates, or politicians of the Right. There was considerable trouble over the peace settlement at this time, its culmination being reached with the occupation of the Ruhr. As election time approached, the opponents of M. Poincare began marshalling their forces, using against him two potent weapons, the Ruhr policy and his financial proposals, including higher taxation and drastic measures of economy. The result was a victory for the cartel formed by the Radicals and Socialists of various shades of opinion, in opposition to the Bloc National. M. Herriot became Prime Minister, and as long as he retained office commanded a comfortable majority. Despite that fact theie was no stability in office. M. Herriot soon fell, and in two years after the 1924 election there were at least half a dozen different Governments under the cartel. Apart from other aspects of the policy followed—the move to break relations with the Vatican and various of social reform— something of a financial debacle occurred during the entire period. When M. Herriot first took office, the franc stood at to the pound. 'lt fell rapidly during the following two years. After various changes he became Prime Minister again in 1926, when the exchange rate reached the disastrous level of 240 to the pound. He was ignominiouslv defeated, and the country looked for someone to rescue it from its financial impasse. The call came to M. Poincare, who enjoyed the unusual experience of being put in office and retained there by his declared opponents. That was the strength of his weakness.

Becalled to office in such circumstances that he could impose his own conditions, M. Poincare stipulated that those who had to bear responsibility for the financial chaos should co-operate in the work of restoration. Yielding to his demands, the leaders of the cartel consented to the formation of a Government of National Union. Four Radicals accepted office in the Cabinet. As a result. M. Poincare received the support not only of the Moderates, but of the greater part of the Radical and the Radical Socialist groups. There was division among them, but the malcontents who joined the Socialists and Communists in opposing the National Union could not shake the majority that made the Government a stable one since July, 1926. That it promises to continue so in the new Chamber can be attributed largely to the success already gained in restoring the national finances. Their course can lie indicated by movements of the franc in the past four years. In 1924 it stood at 70 to the pound; in 1926, when M. Poincare was recalled to office, the rate was 240 ; just before the election jt had crept up to 124. The last figure indicative of success as it is, still leaves heavy leeway to lie made up, and the logic of leaving the task with the man who has made progress so far has evidently appealed to the country. A rupture of the Government of National Union was quite a possibility after the election. Obviously it has been avoided, for the reported swing of public opinion to the Right promises that in the new Chamber M. Poincare and M. Briand will continue their respective policies in finance and the foreign field.