THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 5, 1946. FRANCE CHOOSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26170, 5 June 1946, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 5, 1946. FRANCE CHOOSES

The official result of the French elections is the setting up of a new Constituent Assembly, which will sit for seven months and will draft a new Constitution for the Fourth Republic. This was ordained last month, when the people of France, by a ten-to-nine vote—with a majority of more than a million—rejected the Constitution that had been offered it by the sitting Constituent Assembly. The Constitution then proposed, which had gained the Constituent Assembly’s endorsement by a Communist-Socialist majority, would have introduced in France a single-party National Assembly, the Senate being abolished in favour of an advisory Chamber without power. Political writers were quick to draw comparison between an Assembly so constituted, with dictatorial power, and the Revolutionary Convention of 1789, which by its excesses brought the whole system of democracy into disrepute in France, and opened the way to a bloody dictatorship. Whether such fears were valid is a question which begs an answer. In the British democracies what is, in effect, one-Chamber Government functions with reasonable smoothness. But the British nations are not France, and the people of the Republic probably knew their own political weaknesses when they decided to re-submit the Constitution to an elective Assembly. Their voting now confirms the decision to choose a middle way.

The Christian Democrat M.R.P. has the largest party in the new Chamber, but by no means a clear majority, being closely run by the Communists and the Socialists. The surprise of the elections is the poor showing of the P.R.L.,. which represents an amalgamation of the parties of the extreme Right, “not unskilfully,” in the words of the Paris correspondent of the Observer, “ blending old-faphioned Liberal respectability with just a wink of Fascist appeal.” If France is resolutely refusing to throw in her lot with the Communists, she is as evidently not going to swiog to the other extremity, where authoritarian government might be just as likely a product to-morrow of impetuous choosing to-day. For the purpose of drawing up a fresh Constitution, as for the business of Government, the new Assembly is somewhat precariously balanced. The Communisms so far have, during the Fourth Republic’s growing pains, co-operated with the other strong parties to prevent a collapse, which might gravely weaken France at a time when strength is needed, internally and in the international sphere. By continuing to do so, in a coalition in which they could not claim leadership, they would be obeying the mass will and doing their country notable service. Their course has still to be made clear.

HASTENING TOO QUICKLY The present divergence of opinion between the Government of Great Britain and the rulers of those Malayan States which were recently brought into a nominal alliance seems to be based largely upon the British desire to consolidate plans for a new Constitution with undue haste. The Malayans are not un naturally suspicious of any proposals that might entail a loss of freedom, and it must be admitted that the prospect of such remote control as would be exercised by the Colonial Office in Whitehall gives them some cause for apprehension. Their way of life is not prosperous, and their fear that the changes under the new system might be an inadequate compensation for the loss of such liberties as they now enjoy is understandable. The British plans, however, seem to be wise and beneficent, and the only valid argument that can be raised against them appears to lie in the haste with,which their implementation is being attempted. The previous system of control, under which uniformity of legislation for the whole area could be achieved only by the separate actions of at least six legislatures, and sometimes ten, was both cumbersome and needlessly slow. The new proposals, as outlined in a White'Paper presented to the House of Commons, will make for speedier administration and a unification of the States with the ultimate objective of self-govern-ment. The place of the Crown in this plan is to be little more than that of a link drawing the various communities together, but to perform this function effectively it must have the interim right to legislate for all the peoples concerned. An adequate amount of local autonomy is to be allowed to the present rulers, and there can be little doubt that the Malayans, once their apprehensions have been allayed, will benefit substantially, with no countervailing disadvantages, when the plans have been put into operation. On the material side, they have everything to gain. It is part of the British proposals, as was stated when the union scheme was first mooted, that Malaya’s vast mineral resources shall be developed by industry and research, that the native people shall share fully in the rewards that are gained, and that the wealth produced by the joint efforts shall be reflected in the native population’s standard of life. There is every reason, then, why the Malayans should embrace the idea of union and little if any cause for them to retrace the steps they have already taken towards it. It is apparent, however, that further wide consultation, to determine exactly the feelings of those most intimately concerned, is an important pre-requisite, for agreement, and with this should be coupled a more diplomatic approach. If the Colonial Office is prepared to take warning from the state of near-stalemate into which its haste has thrown the discussions, there still appears to be time to recover the lost ground.