FRENCH CRISIS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20222, 5 February 1934, Page 1

FRENCH CRISIS.

Cabinet Portfolios Change Hands. MINISTERS RESIGN. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received February 5, 11 a.m.) PARIS, February 4. Another Cabinet crisis is threatened, following the resignations of M. Pietri, M. Fabry and M. Doussaint (Undersecretary for Education), when the Government announced the transference of M. Chiappe from the Prefecture of Police to the Governor-Generalship of Morocco, and of M. Thome, Director of the Surete Generale, to be administrator of the Ccmcdie Francaise. Other changes include that of M. Pressard, who is M. Chautempss bro-ther-in-law from Assistant Public Prosecutorship to a judgeship. All the changes are attributable to the Stavisky affair. The Socialists have also demanded the dismissal of M. Chiappe, owing to his handling of the Paris riots. M. Daladier, the Premier, offered and M. Paul-Boncour accepted, the Ministry of War. M. Palmade declined the Ministry of Finance. M. Marchandeau has accepted the portfolios of M. Pietri. The Government is so shaken that its resignation is expected. In any case, defeat in the Chamber on Tuesday is probable. M. Doumergue has already come to Paris in readiness to accept the Premiership. M. Chiappe, it is reported, refused the Moroccan post. At present he is in bed suffering with sciatica and is unable to visit M. Daladier, but his successor, M. Bonnefoy Sibeur, has already taken office. The Conservative Press almost entirely supports M. Chiappe, though the Socialist papers are delighted with his removal, calling him a plotter against the Government. Ilis refusal of the Governor-Generalship cf Morocco is due to his regarding it as a declaration of lack of confidence. During the Stavisky inquiry Pigaglio, the journalist who owned the villa in Switzerland in which Stavisky shot himself, told the Magistrates that Stavisky had planned to escape to Venezuela. He expected that he would not be sought as the Government w r ould do everything to avoid a scandal.