A PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18005, 28 April 1930, Page 15

A PARIS LETTER.

NEW PREMIER. A GOVERNMENT OF THE 5-EFT. (From a Correspondent.) PARIS, February 26. The Tarclieu Government has come and gone, and now we have in its place a Government of the 'Left, under M. Qhautemps (dependent for its existence on the vagaries of the Socialist Party, wilhout whose support it cannot live. M. Chautemps is a youngman, practically unknown outside. the Chamber and his party. For his maiden trip as President of the Council he will require all the Parliamentary gifts with which he is credited if he is to keep his team together in fact of the exigencies of his Socialist supporters and the opposition of his Right Wing to Socialist legislation. Before the war the average life of a French Cabinet was reckoned at about eight months. Short enough for any oonsecutive work to be accomplished, even this span has nowadays been considerably reduced. M. Doumergue became .President of the Republic in the summer of 1924, and the Cabinet crisis which he had had on his hands this week is already the eleventh that he as to solve in less than six years of office. And M. Poincare’s two Cabinets alone filled nearly half of this period I

M. Tardieu, who came into power full of plans for constructive legislation, has found his Government cut off in its infancy at the age of three and a half months. No wonder that politics in France appear to the outsider as a game in which anybody may one day succeed in drawing a winner. Had M. Tardieu uot had to take to his bed with influenza the moment he arrived back from London it is probable that on the very secondary question which caused his fall he would not have been defeated. But influenza or no, the Opposition, and many of the Government’s majority as well, were out after M. Cheron’s skin, and as M. Tardieu had proclaimed himself at one with his Minister of Finance in refusing all taxation cuts, a Government defeat sooner or later was probably inevitable. This was more especially the case in view of the fact that with the London Conference still on his hands the Prime Minister could not have always been in the Chamber to keep a tight hand on the situation. A Symptomatic Crisis. The circumstances of the fall of the Tardieu Cabinet have thus been very symptomatic of French parliamentary life. The composition of the present Chamber, which was at bottom elected for or against M. Poincare much more than on strictly party programmes, renders exceedingly difficult the formation of a stable Government. Necessary at any time, the constant presence of the Prime Minister in the Chamber and the lobbies, where he can keep touch with his own followers and maintain a firm hand over nascent antigovernmental intrigues, is in such circumstances more than ever demand - ed. And this is precisely' what M. Tardieu, thanks to The Hague and London Conferences, was not able to do. Hence, although there were no criticisms of his policy in London, M. Tardieu fell a victim of politicians who made the most of his absence to push their party politics. Yet all this would have been considerably more difficult but for the widespread dissatisfaction with M. Gheron’s financial policy of “safety first” in the matter of tax reduction. For his refusal to let go his big Treasury balances and devote them to the alleviation of taxation rather than to the amortisation of the debt is generally represented as one of the principal causes for a distinct slacking-off in business activity that has set in recently in France. Anti-Soviet Feeling. The anti-Soviet feeling roused by the disappearance of General Koutepoff has undoubtedly been increased by the news of the troubles in Indo-China. For there now seems no question that the mutiny last week at Yen Bay, in Tonkin, which cost the lives of five French officers and non-com-missioned officers was the result of a carefully organised campaign of Communist propaganda throughout the colony. A widespread agitation, it is officially admitted, has been carried on for a year past under the direction of Annamites resident in China, and acting in accordance with advice given them by “foreigners.” In some quarters it is believed that the decision to foster a Communist movement in Indo-China was taken at a meeting of the Third International field at Hankow in 1927, at which a-mong others the well-known French militant Communist Doriot was present. Although this agitation may leave untouched the majority of the population of Indo-China its promoters are none the less active, and according to the Ministry of Colonies it was only timely precautions which prevented the outbreak of mutinies similar to that of Yen Bay at other points. Had the fall of M. Tardieu’s Government not prevented the raising in the Chamber of the Koutepoff affair the other day, as was expected, it is certain that tacked on to it there would have been a question about this Communist movement in Indo-China, which, In turn, has certainly intensified Hie desire existing -in many quarters to see the relations between France and Moscow broken off. It is difficult to say what the general attitude of the Chamber towards such a proposal would be, but had a demand for the departure of the Soviet Embassy from Paris been backed by a clear majority M. Tardieu would hardly have opposed it.. Generally speaking, the situation between France and Russia is such that so long as no definite reason for a rapture arises it is felt that things may'as well go on as they are. On the other hand, the maintenance of relations with Moscow is of such very limited utility from the French point of view that little would be lost if they were to come to an end.