SUBSTANTIAL REBUFF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27043, 30 March 1949, Page 5

SUBSTANTIAL REBUFF

FRENCH COMMUNISM LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS NZPA —Copyright Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 29. As a test of public opinion, the results of the French local government elections are somewhat obscure, but what is not obscure in the least is that the Communists have suffered a substantial rebuff, says the Daily Telegraph. It is all the greater because tyre Communists fought these elections on national issues, notably the Atlantic Pact.

At the same time, the paper says, the Minister of. the Interior’s statement that the Communists had been “virtually wiped out” should be received with caution. The Communists polled well over 1,000,000 votes, and, though this total was achieved by putting up candidates everywhere and therefore by showing their full potential strength, neither France nor her friends can be wholly freed from anxiety. There is some distance still to go before a fifth column of that size can be converted or discounted. Paris reports say that, with 760 of the 785 county council election results known, the Government bloc this morning led with 525 from the de Gaullists (215) and the Communists (20). The Prime Minister, Dr Henri Queuille, said that the people of France had answered the challenge thrown to the Government by + he Communists and de Gaullists on making the departmental council elections a politicial affair “The people of France have answered the appeal I made in the name of the Government," he said. The second ballot was a crushing defeat for the, Communists, according to the two non-Communist evening papers, France Soir and the Paris Presse, “but,” they added, “the huge Communist loss in seats must not make one forget that they got almost 25 per cent, of the votes.”