A PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19330, 9 August 1934, Page 5

A PARIS LETTER.

THE PREMIER’S POWERS. OVERWORKED MINISTERS. M. SARRAUT’S LONG HOURS. (From a Correspondent.) ■PARIS, June 24. Power is so carefully guarded in the French political world that those called upon to exercise it almost invariably complain that it is practically impossible for them to accomplish the tasks which they have set out to achieve. MM. Millerand and Poincare both declared that as Presidents of the Republic they were the slaves of a political system. They had to bury their ideas concerning the political life of the nation for the term of their tenure of office. M. Doumergue, another ex-President, who is now Premier, has just declared that the Presidency of the Council Is in need of reorganisation. A Premier, he says, must have more power if he is to be of great use to the country. M. Doumergue has pointed out that he has only three assistants in his own heavily charged office, and oertain visitors have passed the remark that he is being treated, not as a chief, but as a workman. He has so much to do and so little real power. His idea is that the Premier of France must be recognised as a real chief, and should have his powers extended. There has been a certain amount of criticism concerning the composition of his Cabinet. To this he has replied that, although youth has many and very good claims, there is a good deal to be said for experience. Unless those who have experience are given power to use it, knowledge which cannot be learned from books and lectures will prove like seed cast upoa barren soil. The Premier, therefore, says that the President of the Republic and the President of the Council should be able really to preside, and to this end should be equipped with better facilities in the way of staff and office accommodation.

Overworked Ministers. It Is commonly believed that a Cabinet Minister is a person who has very little to do except to give a few instructions to his secretaries every morning and to appear from time to time in the Chamber or the Senate to read replies prepared by those secretaries to various questions concerning bis department. M. Albert Sarraut, of the Interior, has just told the Chamber that since he became a Minister four and a half months ago he has had so much to do that he has been able to snatch on an average only three hours’ sleep out of each twenty-four. 'He has to spend most of his me, he says, in telephoning to prefects and dictating measures for the preservation of order in various parts of the country. In Haris alone, he told the Chamber, there had been 1100 demonstrations since February, each one of which required the organisation of a special police service. He had to pass most of his waking hours in the accomplishment of such duties, and the Communist Party did not help him by spending so much of their energy on the organisation of demonstrations which could only result in breaches of the peace and considerable expense to the community.

A Plethora of Ministers. There is no lack here of people who are entitled to call themselves Ministers, for it is a rule in France that any one who has one been a Minister should ever afterwards be addressed as M. le Ministre, just as ex-Presidents of the Republic, of the Council, or either the Senate or Chamber, remain for life “M. le President.” France now has 235 people who aro entitled to be addressed as “M. le Ministre.” The Chamber of Deputies accounts for 106 of them and the Senate for 66. France has recently seen such swift changes of Cabinets that no fewer than 14 of the members of Parliament now sitting have been Premiers. In the Cabinet of National Union, which now governs France, there are six Ministers who must be addressed as "M. le President.” There are, in fact, sufficient Ministers avilable to form 10 Cabinets. But not all have actually held Ministerial posts. The title of Minister is frequently given to undersecretaries and to retiring consuls. A cynical observer has remarked that in addressing any member of either the Senate or the Chamber it is well to call him M. le Ministre, because at least one in five of the present legislators are entitled to this appellation. Notre Dame's Hospital. The famous cathedral of Notre Dame has a hospital of which very few tourists, or even Parisians, have suspected the existence. It is a hospital for birds, which has been installed on the roof of one of the wings of the building. Here Canon Renault, the choirmaster of the Cathedral, lias made a beautiful roof garden, in the centre of which is a small wooden structure which is known as the pigeons’ hospital. Hundreds of pigeons live on and about Notre Dame. When one of them is sick or injured it flutters hack io the church which it has made its home. There it is not neglected, for Canon Renault keeps a' sharp watch on his roof garden, and the feathered wanderer arriving iliere is immediately placed in the pigeons’ hospital and properly cared for. It has been remarked that the pigeons seem to kiow where to go when they are in need of succour. When strong and healthy they fly proudly about the great lowers which they have made their home, hut when sick they go to the canon's roof garden.