The Press THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1946. France and de Gaulle

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24906, 20 June 1946, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1946. France and de Gaulle

Five months ago, General de Gaulle resigned as head of the French Government. His resignation was then declared, by his principal private secretary, to be ** irrevoc- * able ” and to signify his intention to retire “ entirely from political “ life This week, at Bayeux, he showed that his spokesman’s words should not have been taken literally. The pointer was perhaps not necessary. General de Gaulle resigned, ostensibly, because his task was over. But the rose-tinted picture he drew of conditions in France, and the pose he took,of a man who had earned the right to retire, seemed unreal to Parisians who had just seen their bread put back on the ration and had not received their meat ration for weeks. They looked for a more plausible explanation; and most of them saw it in the constitutionmaking process. They noted that General de Gaulle’s main preoccupation had been with the new constitution; that his ambition was to enshrine in it the supremacy of the executive over the legislature; that it seemed he might succeed if he could continue tc exploit dissension between the Communists and the Socialists. They noted, too, that three days before he resigned the Communists and the Socialists had at last decided to act together on the constitutional issue. The Socialist-Communist liaison committee, dormant almost ever since its creation soon after the liberation, had come to life and decided that the two parties should enter • into ‘‘a defensive agreement”, as “Liberation,” put it, “against the “ idea of a presidential govern“ment”. It meant that General de Gaulle had no prospect of getting the Assembly to accept his constitutional ideas, and that he had no choice but to submit or withdraw. He withdrew.

Three months later, over the protests of the party which claimed his leadership, the Communists and Socialists approved a constitution which made the Assembly all powerful. The electorate, unexpectedly, rejected the draft; and to-day an Assembly no longer dominated by Communists and Socialists is about to begin the constitution-making process again. The outcome, however, remains obscure. The M.R.P. has increased its representation in the Assembly. It ranks now as the first party instead of the third; and on its Right the sum of the votes is narrow enough to enable it tc frame a constitution. But though more than a fortnight has passed since the result of the election was known, there is nothing to show that such an alliance is probable or even contemplated, or, even, that the formation of a Government on any basis is near. It is certainly not an appropriate moment for General de Gaulle to declare himself ready or willing to return to political life. But it is not too early to begin to move towards such a declaration, and to restate the case for a bicameral legislature and an executive in which effective power would rest with the president.