NEW FRENCH CABINET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22987, 15 March 1938, Page 10

NEW FRENCH CABINET

While Europe has been stirred to the depths by Hitler's sudden march on Austria, in France the recurrent problem of finding a Government able to hold its own in Chamber and Senate, as well as to play its part in the arena of international affairs, has had to be faced. When the Gerraan troops were marching, France was without a Government. The circumstance may have emboldened Germany to take the drastic step of crossing the Austrian frontier, though it seems likely that Hitler had chosen his moment without giving much thought to the viewn or the domestic situation of his neighbours. The European crisis seems to have had some influence on the business of forming the new Frennh Cabinet. The national council of tile Socialist Party voted in favour of forming a national Government. In January, when M. Chautemps resigned and subsequently formed a new Ministry, the Socialists would not allow M. Blum to participate in it, though he wished to do so. Again, the Confederation of Labour has appealed to the whole country for a collaboration of all parties, a new attitude for the industrial power behind the previous Popular Front combination. As a result of all this, there is a Cabinet composed largely of Radicals and Socialists. / Many of the Ministers have served previously under M. Blum or M. Chautemps and several, of whom M. Daladier is the chief, under both of these previous Prime Ministers. How far the new combination will stand tests under which its three predecessors failed only time can show. On present prospects there is every need for stability. The international outlook is too critical for such luxuries as crises in domestic politics to be safe, while the recent unsteadiness of the franc suggests that the financial future is not quite so secure as M. Chautemps suggested as he left office.