WITHOUT A BIBLE

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3477, 9 June 1934, Page 11

WITHOUT A BIBLE

SOCIALISTS SWORN IN. For the first time in the history of Geneva the Bible was not used at the swearing-in of the Cantonal Council recently. There was on lectern with the customary Bible in Valvin's altarless cathedral of St. Pierre when the new Socialist Government took the oath. All the ancient ceremony was dispensed with, for M. Leon Nicole, leader of the Government, who had just completed a term of imprisonment for inciting a Geneva crowd to revolt in 1932, had ordered that there should be no military uniforms, ho bands, and no salute of guns from the ancient ramparts.

The members of the National Union Party, the local Fascists, refused to take part in the ceremony, which they described as the "profanation of St. Pierre by the godless," and no representatives of the Christian Socialist Party were present. Although it was feared that the ceremony would result in disturbances, there was no untoward incident. When the actual oath ;,vas taken. however, there was a buzz of excitement throughout the cathedral, for the four Socialist members of the Conseil d'Etat, which consists of seven members, refused to swear. "I promise," was their reply to the oath when it was read to them. The moment he had officially taken office, the new President of the Cantonal Council, who is now Minister

of Justice and Police, summoned all the heads of the Police Force and suspended one from duty, transferred two to other offices, and announced that one would retire shortly. He then placed wreaths on the graves of those killed in last years' disturbances when troops fired on the crowd. Although the Socialist Party has no majority in the Grand Conseil, the legislative body of the Canton, a majority in the Cantonal Council (Conseil d'Etat), gives wide executive power. Many of the "Hautes families," the ancietn bourgeois families of the city, are considering transferring as much of their property as possible from Ge neva - Geneva is the first of the Swiss Cantons—which are completely autonomous except for questions relating to foreign policy and the Army—to become Socialist. The success of the Socialist Party throughout Switzerland in the recent elections has caused much dismay.