FRENCH CABINET.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1655, 23 January 1913, Page 5

FRENCH CABINET.

■ ■■■-■ -•■ —■; ;■;>■".;.; '..//;:'"•-- : ; | •A NEW MINISTRY; : By Tcleeranh—Press Association—GoDSTlEht Paris, January 21. M. Briand, who has Succeeded to the Premiership on the. election of M.' Poincaro as President, has formed his Cabinet as follows:—. .' Premier and Minister of the Interior— M. Briand. ..:.:, ,~. 1 Foreign Affairs—M. Jonnard. ■'•'■ War—M. Etienne. ' -. • Marine—M. Baudin. ... > Colonies—M. Jean Morel. ' , \ , M. Delcasse, who was' Minister for Marino in tho Poincare Cabinet, declined to accept ai portfolio on account of '■'■ illhealth. : ■'-~:'." .-• ,;.s-v '■~;•, M. BRIAND AND HIS COLLEAGUES: M. Briand's Cabinet does not include any members of tho Poincare Ministry, so far as shown in tho above message. The fall of M. Briand's former /Cabinet, in March, 1911, was due. to a temporary comI bination of Clericals and Radicals,. M.' Briand was born in Nantes, a city which has bred strong men, in 18G2,'educated for the legal profession, and won a reputation at an early day as a man of ability and scholarship, and at tho same time an advocate of extreme Socialistic views. His first appearance in the Chamber of Deputies was as a. representative of, the revolutionary Socialists, ond at one time, he served the party'as editor of a Socialistic paper.. When he was called tVtho Premiership in 1909, on the fall of theClemenceau Cabinet, and accepted the portfolio of the Ministry of Public Worship, his Radical allies expected that he would push the Radical programme. But in this case, as in that of many Radicals of large ability, official .responsibilities tempered his izeal, and brought him face to face with the larger problems of public life. He had come into notice as the reporter of the Church and State Separation Bill; and his Radical supporters expected thai he would apply the provisions of that Bill with drastic severity. But M. Briand ceased to lie partisan when he became a responsible' Minister, and his management of the relations of tho Church to the State was marked .by tho strictest conformity! to tho law. He was firm but conciliatory. This gavo great offence to his •Radical supporters, who would have been satisfied with nothing short of absolute and destructive antagonism to the Church. In his dealing with this delicate and difficult situation he ! showed that courage (which 'is a large part of wisdom, and the common sense which a statesman brings to the solution of difficult problems. The test of his ability and courago came at the time of the strike-on the State rail-, ways,.an industrial disturbance'which became political, and created a dangerous crisis requiring both judgment and supreme courage. Tho Radicals who had been M. Briand's supporters expected him to deal with that crisis from the Radical standpoint, instead of which ho dealt with it from the national standpoint. Ho met the strike and showed himself master of the situation by enforcing the law. calling out the strikers as reserves in the national army. This left them no alternative but disobedience to their leaders or to the Government, and the strikers did not wait long in making their choice. Having secured tranquility, M. Briand immediately applied himself to tho problem of providing means of. settling labour disputes in such a way as to' secure prompt hearing for grievances and a trustworthy method of removing them. His courageous suppression of the strike had alienated the Socialists; his proposals for redressing the pssible wrongs pi tho strikers alienated his more conservative supporters. Tho names of most of the other members of tho Cabinet will be familiar ,to readers who have followed the conrso of politics in France. The new Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Charles Jonnard, is Deputy for Pas-dc-Calais, and was formerly Minister for Public Works in the Cabinet of M. Cnsimir-Perier, of 1893-01, and Governor-General Df Algeria in 1900. M. Jonnard is a landed proprietor and was born in 1857.

M. Eugeno '• Eticnno was Minister for War in tho Rouvicr and Sarrien Cabinets in 19011. He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1881 as member for Oran (Algeria), and has'since been prominently identified with politics, Ijeing ono of the leading authorities on French colonial affairs, -Jf. Unudin was Minister for Public Works in tho Wnldeck-llous-6eau Ministry from 1899 to 1902,