CABINET FALLS

Southland Times, Issue 22475, 10 November 1934, Page 5

CABINET FALLS

FRENCH CRISIS DOUMERGUE RESIGNS COLLEAGUES’ DESERTION “DROPPING THE PILOT” (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Paris, November 8. Cabinet has resigned. President Lebrun asked M. Laval to form a new Cabinet, but M. Laval declined. The Premiership was then offered to M. Flandin, who has accepted. M. Herriot’s letter containing the resignation, signed by MM. Herriot, Berthou, Bertrand and Quille, strongly attacks the selfishness of the Radicals, and says that a truce could not consist of bowing before the exigencies of a party which held complete power from February 6 and subordinating decisions solely to that party’s pleasure, M. Doumergue stated: “At least six Ministers abandoned me. I cannot govern with a minority.” The Radicals justify the resignations on the ground that M. Doumergue had not consulted them on vital reforms. “While I do not fear the elections,” M. Doumergue says, “I consider them inopportune. I do not desire to deliberate under a double menace of riots and a dissolution.” Headed “Dropping the Pilot,” the Intransigeant publishes as bitter an editorial as has ever been printed in France. It says: “Thus suddenly the pilot has curses rained on him from all sides. He was sent for when the ship was about to sink and stoically consented to resume the exhausting and perilous job. We cannot blame him for whatever dangers his departure entails. We kill our own men. Here was a Premier attempting a great task, but immediately he wants to work he is ceaselessly harassed and over a hundred unemployment questions are tabled. Our political morals are bad. We praise our great servants of State only when they are in their graves, whither we send them before their time.” CABINET FORMED FLANDIN PRIME MINISTER. FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO LAVAL. (United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) Paris, November 9. The new Cabinet has been officially announced as follows:— Prime Minister—M. Flandin. Minister of Foreign Affairs.—M. Laval. Minister of Finance. —M. Germain Martin. Minister of Marine.—M. Pietri. Minister for Air. —General Denain.. Minister for the Colonies.—M. Bollin. Minister of Pensions.—M. Rivollet. Minister of Justice. —M. Pernot. Minister of the Interior. —M. Regnier. Minister of Education. —M. Malleme. Minister of War.—General Maurin. Minister of Public Works.—M. Roy. Minister of Commerce. —M. Marchandpau. Minister of Agriculture.—M. Cassez, Minister of Labour.—M. Jacquer. Minister in charge of the Post Office. —M. Mendel. Minister of Mercantile Marine.—M. Ibertrand. Minister of Health.—M. Queuille. Ministers without portfolios.—M. Herriot and M. Marin. The Cabinet is balanced similarly to M. Doumergue’s. M. Flandin, in announcing the names, said that the truce continued and that differences had been forgotten. The new Prime Minister of France. M. Pierre Etienne Flandin, was born in Paris in April, 1889, as the son of Etienne Flandin, Attorney-General and later Resi-dent-General in Tunis. After completing his legal studies he practised for a time as an advocate, but in 1913 and 1914 acted as secretary to Millerand. Politically he belongs to the group of Republicans of the Left. In 1914, though he was only 25, he was elected to the Chamber as deputy for the Yonne Department and has been a member of it ever since. He was also a member of the Conseil General of his constituency and Mayor of Domecy-sur-Cure. In 1917 he was appointed a director of aeronautical services and as such took part in the conference held in 1919 to prepare the International Aviation Convention. He was elected president of the Aero Club of France in 1922. Meanwhile, M. Flandin practised at the Paris Appeal Court. In the Millerand Cabinet, which took office in January 1920, and in its successor, the Leygues Government, which lasted until January, 1921, he was Under-Secretary for Air. He did not hold office again till January, 1924, when he was given his first portfolio—that of Commerce —in the Francois-Marsal Ministry. He occupied the same post in the two Cabinets of Tardieu from November 1929, to December, 1930. For some time he was also President of the Chamber. After the resignation of the Steeg Government on January 22, 1931, Flandin, whose speech had brought about its fall, was one of those mentioned as likely to be the next Prime Minister, it being thought that he was a suitable man to rally a moderate bourgeois majority under his flag. M. Laval, however, was entrusted with the task. He chose Flandin as his Finance Minister. NEW PRIME MINISTER YOUNGEST IN HISTORY. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) Paris, November 8. M. Flandin is the youngest Prime Minister in the history of the French Republic. He is 45 years of age and stands 6 feet six inches high. Despite the refusal of M. Tardieu and Marshal Petain to join him, M. Flandin compiled his Cabinet of National Truce to-night. Marshal Petain assures him of his goodwill. The police have been reinforced in the city, which is comparatively quiet except for the parading of bands of students and members of youth organizations whom the police keep moving. The Fiery Cross League, the strongest ex-servicemen’s association in the country, is calm. It refrains from meetings and speeches. It will give any one with a clean political reputation a chance, but there is no guarantee that a hurriedly formed stop-gap Ministry will last more than a few weeks. Lobbyists declare that the pre-truce days of three months’ Cabinets have returned. Patriotic organizations, though not mobilized, stand to attention awaiting events. The Action Francaise is preparing two demonstrations. To-day’s brief session of the Chamber of Deputies ended with cries from the Left, “Down with assassins!” and shouts from the Right and Centre, “Vive Doumergue!” A Cabinet meeting, despite mechanical procedure, did not lack drama inasmuch as it turned the last page of the last chapter of the public service of “Papa” Doumergue, whose wife quietly awaited him outside his office while he cleared up his papers preparatory to handing over to M. Flandin.