SURPRISING VCTORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 89, 16 April 1938, Page 9

SURPRISING VCTORY

FRENCH PREMIER

SUPPORT FOR PROPOSALS

SUCCESS WHERE OTHERS HAVE FAILED

If By Tpifruiai'h—Press Association Copyright] Received April 15, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, April 14. i The French Senate passed M. Daladier’s Plenary Powers Bill by 288 votes to 1, which were later officially recorded as 288 to 0, the solitary dissentient having changed his mind as he is legally entitled to. Parliament has adjourned until May 31. The Government has been given a good start, but the real test will come at the reassembly, when the members have noted the effect of the decrees upon the financial and economic situation. Meantime the Government’s policy appears to be practically M. Blum’s shorn of his more drastic proposals for a capital levy and the supervision of exchange operations. Many are of the opinion that the policy does not go deeply enough into the roots of the evil. The strike situation is improving. Work has been resumed in nationalised aircraft factories. A tribunal has started in an effort to settle engineering disputes affecting 100,000 workers. Socialists Outmanoeuvred The Paris correspondent of The Times considers M. Daladier’s victory one of the most remarkable Parliamentary performances in recent years. It has satisfied everyone with the exception of the Socialists, who not unjustly feel that they have been outmanoeuvred.

The parties rallying to M. Daladiei are not inspired by a common motive and therefore did not express national unity. The Socialists might have shown spleen by abstention or oppo-

sition if the Communists, with whom M. Daladier is on good terms had not announced their intention of supporting him, thus forcing the Socialists’ hands. The Right took the view that the present Cabinet is beginning to shift from the Left to the Right and the other deputies supported M. Daladier because they believed a strong line in the industrial field was necessary to prevent a grave emergency.

The Government has a clear seven weeks to show its mettle before Parliament reassembles. The Bourse is explosively cheerful, yet the economic situation is unchanged. M. Daladier’s proposals do not differ materially from his predecessors. They are inflationary and stand or fall by the capacity of the Government to borrow from the French investor.