THE TABLET, February 12th, 1955. VOL. 205, No. 5986

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

P ub lis h ed as a N ew sp a p e r

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Recjina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

FEBRUARY 12th, 1955

NINEPENCE

Back t o N orm a l in th e S ov ie t U n io n O b scen ity and th e L aw : New Proposals for Censorship. By Christopher Hollis, M.P.

The D u t ie s o f G overnm ent: The Future o f British Railways. By Douglas Jerrold

Mau Mau a t C lose Q u a r te r s : A Problem for the Christians. By David Walker

The R efu gees o f Y iet-N am : Tragedies o f a Catholic Exodus. By Robert Cardigan

Equal P a y : Catholic Teaching on Women’s Rights. By Mary Cavanagh

The Cambridge C lim ate : Ideas in a University. By Roland Hill

B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Music in the Renaissance, by Gustave Reese ; Some Young People, compiled by Pearl Jephcott ; The Golden Treasury, edited by Cecil Day Lewis ; Early Venetian Painters, by F. M. Godfrey ; The Last o f the Fathers, by Thomas Merton ; The Mind o f Kierkegaard, by James Collins ; I Threw a Rose into the Sea, by Alyse Simpson ; This M y Son, by Denzil Batchelor ; A Grand Man, by Catherine Cookson ; The Eye o f Heaven, by Isabel Quigly ; Loser Takes All, by Graham Greene ; Drinkers o f Darkness, by Gerald Hanley ; Ballets o f Today, by Cyril Beaumont. Reviewed by Anthony Milner, Dorothy Sarmiento, R. C. Scriven, Edward Hutton, Bruno S. James,

D. J. B. Hawkins, Celia Kent, John Biggs-Davison and B. C. L. Keelan.

MENDÈS-FRANCE IN RETROSPECT T HE defeat of the Mendes-France Government was an eventuality which could be foreseen for weeks past, as soon as the ex-Premier had secured the ratification by the National Assembly of the Paris security agreements. Thereafter the MRP, on whose far from benevolent nonbelligerence the Premier’s shifting and uncertain majority had always depended, felt itself free to join with the many and varied enemies of the Premier to secure his dismissal ; and it may be added that the MRP had much cause to cherish hostility to M. Mendes-France, for they were the one group in the Chamber which he had never tried to conciliate.

The point de chute came with the debate on affairs in North Africa. Before this critical debate M. Mendes-France had attempted to broaden the bases of his majority, firstly by a reshuffling of Cabinet posts, by which he abandoned the direction of foreign affairs to M. Edgar Faure, formerly the Minister of Finances. This shuffle was accompanied by a multiplication of other Cabinet posts—a method of “majoritybuying” which M. Mendes-France had often criticised in previous administrations. It was a far cry from the glad days of last June when the Premier had assumed office surrounded by a small, chosen band of devotees. This move, the sixth Cabinet “adjustment” in eight months, failed in its purpose ; so M. Mendes-France proceeded to yet another of his spectacular moves—this time the nomination of M. Jacques Soustelle, formerly Secretary-General of the Gaullist RPF, as Governor-General of Algeria. This, and another offer to M. Pierre de Gaulle, were clearly attempts to rally the Gaullist blocs in the Chamber.

Unfortunately this nomination antagonized still further a section of M. Mendès-France’s own Radical-Socialist Party, led by M. René Mayer, an ex-Premier and the Deputy for Constantine, in Algeria. M. Mayer had strongly criticised M. Mendès-France shortly before this, at the Radical Congress. He had also had some shafts for M. François Mauriac and the weekly l'Express, which had been running a bitter campaign against the French colonists and police in North Africa, and presenting M. Mendès-France as the miracle man who alone could save the situation. It was, incidentally, this campaign which stiffened the determination of the MRP group in the National Assembly to be rid of the Premier as early as possible ; for M. Mauriac has been conducting a vendetta against the MRP leaders in the Assembly, notably M. Bidault and M. Teitgen, and trying hard to bring about a “new Left” grouping in which the MRP would clearly be the principal sufferers.

It was clear that the Premier’s moves to conciliate his opponents had failed when the Assembly defeated the Government on two measures in the week before the North African debate. A request for a “provisional twelfth” of budgetary credits, made necessary by the failure to secure the 1955 Budget before the end of last year, would normally have been granted without much discussion ; but the “provisional twelfth” for February was rejected by 325 votes against 286. This was followed on the next day by a defeat on another clause of the Budget by the massive vote of 580 against 34.

Thereafter there was nothing for M. Mendès-France to do but put down the question of confidence and fight it out ; and to his credit he went out not with a whimper but a bang.