COMMUNISM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19806, 23 May 1934, Page 14

COMMUNISM

“OPEN CALL TO CIVIL WAR ” ADVOCACY BY FRENCH ROYALISTS Significant for France and for Europe is a statement intimating that the Royalist leader in France had published in the newspaper “L’Action Francaise” an open call for civil war against Communists, wTites Lionel Dare in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” “L’Action Francaise” literally “French Action”—signifies first a political party, and second a well-known Parisian daily newspaper, the organ of that party. Is this statement the first rumbling of a deep-seated political eruption which may so effectively concentrate the patriotism of the French masses as to transform the “Idee Nationale” into the “Idea Nazionale” of litaly Fascism? Consider the genesis of this movement known as “L’Action Francaise.” In 1898, certain “Diehard” supporters of Church and Army—Royalists and other believers in forms of aristocracy —formed the “Ligue de la Patrie Francaise.” Its platform was one of fervid and uncompromising nationalism— France for the “truly French.” not for Jews or Protestants or international Socialists; it stood for uncompromising hostility to the democratic principles adumbrated in Rousseau’s “Rights of Man,” which culminated in the French Revolution; its slogan was “Politics First." In the following year the movement became merged in the “Ligue de L’Action Francaise.” which proceeded to embody in the party programme a dogma of absolute monarchy—the return of the Bourbons, or the setting-up of a dictator in the Napoleonic manner. The year 1900 saw’ a further recrudescence of French self-conscious nationalism, bom of the political repercussions following on the Dreyfus trial, and the Ligue proceeded to rally around it not only Royalists, but all those w r ho were dissatisfied with Parliamentarianism. Since then the movement has exercised an influence out of proportion to its membership, largely due to the excellent literary talent of its promoters. In 1899 Leon Daudet founded the | party newspaper “L’Action kFran- | caise,” which thereafter daily enunci- | ated the doctrines of the party in detached philosophic literary style, ! mingled with the most reckless invecI tive. An so, paradoxically, while, in the | last 10 years, its foreign editor ; Jacques Bainville. has produced in his ; work, “Political Consequences of Peace,” the most considered philoi sophic answer to J. M. Keynes's fami ous book, “Economic Consequences of ; Peace,” its chief editor, Charles Maurras, was sentenced to two years’ gaol because of the publication of an open letter to the Minister of the Interior, charging him with abusing his official position. But this is not all. The year 1926 saw the condemnation of “L’Action Francaise” by the Pope, which has been described as the most severe disciplinary action of the Holy See in modern times; memberships of the party and reading of the newspaner “L’Action Francaise” w r ere forbidden to all Catholics. It was indeed a complete severance of the Church from a movement which had hitherto vaunted itself as the champion of Catholic interests, and had received the support of thousands of devout French Catholics. The ardent bellicosity of this noisy party was a hindrance to the Papal policy of international reconciliation. And yet, withal, “L’Action Francaise” as an active ferment is still to be reckoned witn. What of the future? Reinstatement of the Bonapartes is even less likely than that of the Bourbons. but bear in mind that Bonapartism is not merely an allegiance to a dynasty—it is an attitude of mind. It stands for the idea that the best form of government is the absolute rule of a democratically selected autocrat. But the national upheaval last February in France, which culminated in the Paris riots, and the storming of the House of Parliament, revealed V ' utter inability of the Royalists of “L’Action Francaise” to take advantage of a situation which might have been created for them.