The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1936 THE CHALLENGE TO THE POPULAR FRONT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20481, 28 July 1936, Page 6

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1936 THE CHALLENGE TO THE POPULAR FRONT.

Notwithstanding the definitely expressed determination of the French Government under the leadership of M. Leon Blum, to preserve clear-cut neutrality in the terrific struggle being waged in Spain between the Fascists and the Socialists, it is doubtful if the official French attitude will be acceptable to the whole of the Popular Front in France, if the march of events in Spain turns against their Popular Front brethren in Spain. It is interesting to bear in mind that M. Blum is the first French Jew and Socialist to become Prime Minister of France. Obviously, such a leader is wholly unacceptable in both Germany and Italy, because of his stand against the policy of racial discrimination, and because of the closer relationships that are growing between France and Soviet Russia. As a matter of ironic fact, the Popular Front in France may yet find itself irresistibly drawn into the Spanish struggle for supremacy because it is already only too plain that Italy and Germany, the champions of all that is hateful to the Popular Front in all countries are (unofficially, of course) suporting the Spanish revolutionaries in their challenge to the Socialist regime in Spain: It is natural that Fascism, hostile to both Jews and Socialists, should be the pet aversion of M. Leon Blum. Until recently he was anti-Bolshevist, too, adhering to a policy of “socialism by evolution and education,” But, after watching swastika tactics on the other side of the Rhine, M. Blum changed his mind. The Croix de Feu (“Fiery Cross”) and the Royalist squads in his own country brought the menace of Fascism close to home. Slowly, reluctantly, he moved into a untied front with the growing ranks of French Communists. This only pointed him up as an object of Royalist hate. Young Fascists took to chanting on Parisian boulevards: “Bium! Blum! Blum! Your name is like the sound of bullets entering a traitor’s breast. Blum! Blum! Blum!" Years ago, the Dreyfus scandal shattered Leon Blum’s preoccupation with letters, art and treasured trinkets, and he fell under the spell of Jean-Leon Jaures, pre-war leader of the Socialists. As a result the wealthy young sophisticate plunged into politics; indeed, he was literally tom away from a stormy, if somewhat pedantic, ocupation as editor of the Socialist Populaire to become the pilot of France, in command, it is true, of a somewhat mixed crew. Whether he can weather the choppy seas of French politics which have wrecked so many aspirations, remains to be seen. The weakness, at the moment, in view of the life and death struggle being waged in Spain by the Socialists and Communists in conflict with the Royalists and Fascists, is that M. Blum, at the head of the French Socialists, does not control the Chamber of Deputies. His party merely is the largest unit in the Popular Front bloc, which combines Communists, socalled “splinter” or dissident Communists, dissident Socialists, and Radical Socialists, with a total of 381 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of 618 members. Obviously, to hold his position, M. Leon Blum must please the Communists, who are pledged to the Popular Front Government, but decline to take part in it. But M. Blum has also to please the Radical Socialists, who —despite their name—are mildly Left Republicans, mainly small merchants and landowners, who voted Left out of fear of Fascism, rather than love of Socialism. The position to-day of the Front Populaire Government in France, pledged as it is to imposing restrictions on German and Italian Fascists, is not nearly so secure as might be imagined. Moreover, its very foundations are now challenged by the crisis in Spain, where, because the Fascists and Royalists who are making a tierce bid for power, assisted by the strong backing of foreign Fascist countries, the Popular Front Government in France may tragically enough be signing its own death warrant by declining to lend a helping hand to its political comrades •in Spain, who are now engaged in a life and death struggle against the bitterest enemies of all that M. Blum, his colleagues and supporters of the Popular Front both in France and in Spain cherish in their political faith and national ideals.