FRENCH POLITICS.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13485, 3 June 1914, Page 5

FRENCH POLITICS.

RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET,

PROBABLE NEW PREMIER.

SOCIALIST AND ANTI-CLERICAL,

(Received June 3, 0.45 a.m.) Paris,' June 2. The Premier, M. Doumergue, has resigned. It is expected that M. Viviani will bo .the new Premier. He is a Socialist and a sti-ongf labour sympathiser, but he does not belong to the unified Socialists who desire the abolition of the three years' service law. M. Viviani is violently anti-clerical, and is the author of the phrase, "We have put' out the lights of Heaven." The Paris "Petit Journal" announced recently that the Cabinet would resign without waiting for the assembling of Parliament, owing to 102 Socialists refusing to vote for the Budget, demanding the return to the two years' service law. The Socialists and Social-ist-Radicals are profoundly divided on the question of electoral reform, to, which the Socialist-Radicals are opposed. The financial crisis is serious, the Treasury being about empty. The second ballots in connectipn with the French general electiqn left the political situation extremely confusing. Tho Radicals and RadicalSocialists number 237, the Socialists having gained 60 seats, due to theii adoption of a well-defined programme and complete organisation. The comparative failure of the Briandists was due to their insufficient preparation for the campaign, though the chief newspapers supported them.