A PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18350, 9 June 1931, Page 10

A PARIS LETTER.

“LA MARSELLAISE.” r 1 i ! I PRESIDENT’S FAREWELL VISIT. (From a Correspondent). PARIS, April 11. fll. Doumergue is now performing the last official journey which he will make before his term of office as President of the Republic terminates next month. Last year he visited Algeria on the occasion of the centenary of its conquest by France. This year he has gone to Tunis, which half a century ago was brought under the protection of the Republic. If general report be correct M. Doumergue is almost counting the days which separate him from the moment when he will be able to exchange the official splendour of the Elysee for the simplicity of his little country house near Mimes. The belief that he is not prepared to simplify the choice of a new President by himself standing as a candidate at Versailles is thus confirmed. But the wide esteem in which he has been held during his term of office has been strikingly illustrated by the fact that during the past few weeks no fewer than three sovereigns, the Kings of the Belgians, Spain, and Sweden, have all visited the Elysee to take leave of him before he retires into private life. It is on May 13 that his successor — it is to be hoped that he is not a superstitious man—is to be elected. The “Held" remains unchanged. M. Doumer, President of the Senate, will certainly be a candidate, and is regarded as having good chances. M. Painleve will be another. Will M. Briand be persuaded to stand at the last moment? At present he says “Mo,” and it must be recognised that his position has not been strengthened by tne surprise that was sprung upon turn in tne form of the Austro—German agreement. Two other “possibles” are M. Leon Bcrard, Minister of Justice, and M. Albert Lebrun, Senator of the Meurthe et Moselle, who is highly esteemed for him probity and honourability, and is said to have the backing of M. Poincare. But it is the habit of presidential elections to be full of surprises.

France’s Foreign Policy. In the ordinary course of things M. Doumergue would have been accompanied on his journey to Tunis by M. Briand. But the examination of international questions which are pending has necessitated the presence of the Foreign Minister In Paris. The Austro-German Agreement, the difficulties in connection with the Maval Agreement, and finally, the British invitation to the' German Chancellor and Foreign Minister, have considerably upset French public opinion, and there is a feeling abroad that France needs to take stock of her situation in international affairs. There Is a suspicion that she is being left out of things, and it is taking the form of criticisms of M. Briand and his policy. This sensation of disquiet is the reason why M. Doumergue’s speech at Mice has been so very warmly approved. In speaking out his mind about French policy the President is felt to ha\e given a lead, in the direction of firmness, which has been welcomed enthusiastically by the Right, whose Press represents his reference to the League as a disapproval of the policy pursued by M. Briand. The latter at the moment is trying to devise some scheme of economic organisation for Europe which might offer to Germany and Austria an attractive alternative for the proposed Customs Union by bringing them in. As the result of the blow dealt to the policy of "rapprochement” by the agreement between Berlin and Vienna the French Government is having carefully to examine its course of action. It is only necessary to read M. Doumergue’s speech to see how the agreement is likely to affect France’s view of disarmament. A Bad Easter. •Easter, so far as weather was concerned, was almost as much of a disappointment in France as in England, so it is principally a recollection of grey skies that the thousands of English" and German visitors who thronged the capital over the week-end will have carried away with them. Not at all the picture that one should have of Paris at Easter. But Parisians having made their arrangements weeks beforehand were not deterred by the bitter wind of Saturday from setting off on excursions to the country, and with every possessor of a car on the road, hotel accommodation in favourite tourist centres was quite unable to cope with the demands made upon it. No less a person than the Prime Minister himself thus found himself bedless at Bourges. But for Prime Ministers there exists a refuge Inaccessible to the ordinary mortal—the Prefecture, and it was Anally that stately house which offered to M. and Mme Laval the shelter which the hotels of Bourges could not provide. Parodying the well-known quotation “Partir e'est mourir un peu,” a Paris newspaper, forecasting what would happen during the Easter holidays, wrote: “Pour trop d’automobilistes partir e’est mourir.” The prophecy, alas I was correct, for Sunday and Monday accounted for twenty-one deaths among motorists and Injuries to eighty-one others. Last year there wore nineteen and sixty-live respectively, so that with the increase of the number of cars on the road, things seem to have remained about the same —a disappointment to the hopes that greater carefulness had been instilled into drivers by the admonitions and summonses distributed by tlie mobile road police whose powerful cars scour the roads on holidays.