UNREST IN FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 12

UNREST IN FRANCE

Tension has marked French politics ever since the fatal riots in Paris two years ago. The feeling runs so high that explosions such as that reported this morning—the disgraceful mobbing of the Socialist leader, M. Blum—cannot bo regarded as surprising. So many parties have organised themselves on military lines that collisions are almost inevitable. The offenders in this case are on the extreme Right or conservative side and aim at the restoration of the monarchy. They are usually considered rather ineffectual, no more than a comic-opera group withcoloured shirts and snappy berets, but they gain stature from the extremely able conduct of their newspaper, L'Action Francaise, by M. Leon Daudet and that persuasive philosopher, M. Charles Maurras. Incidentally the newspaper is one of the deadliest opponents of the League of Nations and its attacks on Britain in recent months have been incessant. At the same time these Royalists are only one group of the so-called Fascists, others being the Jeunesses Patriotes, the Solidarite Francaise, the Francistes and, most important and formidable, the Croix de Feu, led by Colonel de la Rocque. Against the threat of these uniformed and 3ometimes armed bodies, the parties of the Left—principally the Socialists and the Communists—have organised under M. Blum and other leaders a counter-blast .called the Popular Front. All these developments outside Parliament represent, of course, popular discontent with and distrust of the politicians, whose venality and lack of moral integrity has been nakedly exposed in the Stavisky and other scandals. The politicians would probably have been sent to the rightabout before this, could the public espy any acceptable alternative. There is no lack of would-be leaders but, so far, none that is able to command and compel..