ADVERSE VOTE

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22674, 30 July 1945, Page 5

ADVERSE VOTE

FRENCH ASSEMBLY DE GAULLE DEFEATED CONSTITUTIONAL PLANS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received July 30, 3.15 pjn.) PARIS, July 29 The Consultative Assembly rejected General de Gaulle’s constitutional proposals by 210 votes to 19 and adopted the principle of the Government being responsible to the Constituent Assembly. The defeat of General de Gaulle’s Government in the F rench Assembly has caused a sensation. The Assembly subsequently voted in favour of the principle of a single Sovereign Constituent Assembly by 268 votes to 0. It also voted in favour of the principle that . Ministers will be responsible to the new body as soon as elected. Addressing an unusual Sunday session of the Consultative Assembly, General de Gaulle announced that the Government intended to “stick to its guns” in the dispute over the questions to be submitted in the referendum and would propose a specified division of powers in the new Government. General de Gaulle took up the Assembly’s objections to the Cabinet’s referendum proposals, which many delegates interpreted as a threat to resign if the Assembly failed to support him. The Government proposes to ask the voters whether they want to return to the 1875 constitution or have a new national charter, and if the latter, whether they want the Assembly to exercise complete sovereignty while a constitution is being drafted or divide the powers between the legislature and the executive. General de Gaulle spoke unequivocally against a sovereign assembly, which he said would expose the nation to grave governmental confusion. “This Government proposes to efface itself in favour of a Government resulting from universal suffrage,” he said. “Something new is needed. It is better to search for it in the people’s suffrages than in an arbitrary Government decisicti. We must give the people back their faith in constitutionalism.” Price Paid Before 1940 General de Gaulle added that the Government would take the Consultative Assembly’s views into consideration, but he emphasised that the French Government needed an assurance of stability. He recalled the terrible price paid before 1940 “because successive Governments were subjected to bargaining inside and outside the Cabinet.” General de Gaulle, making a personal statement, said: “I have no other ambition than to walk at the head of France until the time she regains her place in the world, but I could not reach this goal if I were forced to separate myself from those who were with me in the fight.” Prolonged applause from most parts of the Chamber followed the speech. GOOD BEGINNING CABINET APPOINTMENTS LONDON. July 29 The reaction to Mr Attlee’s Cabi-net-forming is distinctly friendly. The Man> hester Guardian says: “The first appointments in the new Government are good. As everybody hoped, Mr Bevin has taken the Foreign Office. It is an appointment that will give much pleasure. “Of all the front-rank Labour men, Mr Bevin. is most of the calibre to succeed Mr Churchill as the symbol of British democracy abroad. He has the downrightness, courage and sincerity that we need to back the British word. “True, he has no experience of foreign affairs, less even than Mr Hendersort had, but he has imagination and principle. The root of the matter is in him. He will make mistakes, but he will never be without a policy. At last the world knows where we stand. Task of Lord President “It is good, too, that Mr Morrison puts aside the temptations of department to become Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House. The Lord President is nowadays a great co-ordinator and chairman of Cabinet committees. Mr Morrison can do that work of : co-ordination and inspiration well. He also has the adroitness to lead a party through shoals of House of Commons business. “Dr Dalton may make a better Chancellor than he did a President of the Board of Trade, where he was not strong. Sir Stafford Cripps may get on well there. Certainly a new mind was needed. With Sir William Jowitt as Lord Chancellor, Labour is showing that it can give distinction to the Woolsack. The first list is a good beginning.”