FRENCH NATION ACCEPTS NEW CONSTITUTION

Chronicle (Levin), 15 October 1946, Page 5

FRENCH NATION ACCEPTS NEW CONSTITUTION

Received Mondav, 7 p.m. PARIS, Oct. 14. France has accepted the new eonsti tution. The voting- in 89 of the 9(1 departments was 9,20Q,4H7 for ves, and 7,790,676 for no, with 7,776,893 abstentions. Onlv Corsica's figures artoutstanding and agency representatives say they eannot alter the result. The City of Paris rejected the con stitution by 609,529 to 682,553 but Great Paris, ineluding the industrial belt, accepted the Government 's proposals by 609,946 to 381,409. Correspondents opine that the fact tliat more than 30 per cent. of the eleetorate abstained from voting, may weaken the eonstitution 's moral liold on the population as a whole. To offset General de Gaulle's critieism o^-Jthe'r.'pr'ppbs.Cd ,ne,w French constitutio'n^ .§h|) Primf >'Mihi§.t er^; M, . • IB^daul t \ cailed bn the uhiibri 6V-er^th% Vadio to approve the eharter in the referendunt, says the Paris correspondent of the Associated Press. M. Bidault declared that the proposed text was an improve- j ment over the Constitution whieli was rejected last May, beeause it augmented tlie President's powers, instituted a second chamber of Parliament, and established a federalisation system for France 's overseas territories.