THE TABLET June 7th, 195S. VOL. 211. No. 6159

;E .. V,j T A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JUNE 7th, 1958

NINEPENCE

France in North Africa: The Key Role of Tunisia and Morocco Malaise of the French Army: Causes of Discontents. By F rank MacMillan Anglicans and Presbyterians: in. The Inner Spirit of Calvinism. By Ronald Walls Newman and Dean Church : A Friendship that Endured. By Christopher Hollis The Silver Window: A Poem for Corpus Christi. By Alban Leotaud, O.S.B. Planning Parishes: Religious Sociologists at Brussels. By Anthony Spencer

Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

PAST THE

O Y a sufficient majority, the Communists noisily dissenting both in and out of the Chamber, the French deputies have associated themselves with General de Gaulle, because he has an authority with the Army and the Algerian settlers which they have lost. It was the most sensible course open to them, but the reality is not disguised ; they acted at the point of the pistol, and because the alternatives were to be swept away by force, or to be protected by some Communist-led and improvised working class militia ; and for that there was neither time nor inclination.

Acting as they have done, the deputies have not so far found the General unresponsive. His Government has a number of old faces. M. Mollet is there, and M. Pflimlin and M. Pinay ; and a Radical, M. Berthoin, has been given the Ministry of Education. It is clearly not the sort of Government envisaged by those who imposed the General on the Chamber. But it remains to be seen whether these party leaders will be able to resume the party game ; whether they are there because they are representative of so much strength in the Chamber, or whether, as is more probable, they are there to make the transition smoother and to keep an appearance for continuity when what is really intended is a sharp break with the men and methods of the last twelve years. The General is going to be his own Defence Minister ; and the appointment of a career diplomat—one well-known and well-liked abroad, M. Couve de Murville—suggests that he will also be in large issues his own Foreign Minister.

The General has begun quietly, with reassurances at home and abroad. That the new regime is to rest on universal suffrage is not in itself much of a guarantee of civil liberties. Napoleon was the first great exponent of the Plebiscite idea ; and very well it served him. Nor does the third principle, of responsibility to Parliament,

ASSEMBLY mean much in itself, for all sorts of bodies without independence can be called Parliaments. It is the second principle which is the important one, the separation of legislature and executive, presumably on the American model. This can give continuity to the executive; but it would seem to follow that a French executive will need more freedom of action than an American, if the Chamber is still to be elected on the same lines as now, with a wide spectrum of parties, including a strong Communist party. Such a body would be a much less reliable partner than the American. Congress, where there are only two parties, with a great deal in common with each other. The problem of parties in France has not been eased, let alone solved, by the events of the last few weeks.

The purpose for which General de Gaulle has been recalled is to save the French position in North Africa, and, more broadly, to restore the name and greatness of France. The allies of France in the Atlantic community will wish him well in both tasks, for it is to all our interests to see a strong France. But what is strength in this context ? There is no strength in over-playing one’s hand, or attempting to do more than one can ; yet, many of those who have recalled the General seem to be expecting this. One weakness has been that the Fourth Republic’s Governments failed to raise sufficient revenue for the more effective prosecution of the war against the Algerian nationalists. One of the great tests of the reality of a new spirit in France will come very soon, when the right-wing and conservative people, whose sense of national humiliation has made them call for a clean broom and a fresh start, are asked to foot the bill, as foot it they must.

General de Gaulle has gone as far as he could to meet the Parliament men, and they must now expect him to move in another direction, lest he be judged to have