THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1920, Page 11

THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY.

A SURPRISING CHANGE. In view of M. Clemenceau's surprising defeat, the following comment by a London correspondent on his party's triumph at the recent French elections is interesting: The general elections in France have produced results comforting to millions beyond the borders of the Republic, and vastly surprising to those who imagined that they would show a great increase in the power of the extreme Socialists and Radicals. Even to those who favored the view that the parties of the Clemenceau "bloc" would be strengthened the results have come as a surpris». Possessing the best organisation in the country, and working it for all it was worth, the extreme Socialists have suffered a disastrous defeat, having lost something like half their strength i:i the Chamber, while the best known of their leading personalities have gone down in defeat. M. Longuet, who appealed for the suffrages of a decidedly "proletarian" district of Paris, has been completely "snowed under" with all his colleagues of the Socialist list. All fourteen seats in that constituency have gone Republican, the least successful of whom polled 13,000 more votes than the. Socialist leader. In brief, the elections have made a more or less clean sweep of the friends of Bolshevistic Socialism, and have provided a grand demonstration of the political sanity of' the overwhelming mass of Frenchmen after years of war and months of disillusionment and distress.

What adds immensely to the effect of such a demonstration is the history of the disappointment and the crushing economic hardships which the nation has been called upon to endure in the course of the past year. Victory in the war has been followed by bitter experiences for the whole people. The fruits of military triumph have been far less than they were encouraged to expect; the progress of the country's recovery from the wounds of war have been painfully slow, and the difficulties generally, which the people have to face, are much greater than those we are experiencing in England. It seemed to be "the golden moment" for preachers of the Socialism of eliuss war, revolution and anti-patrio-tism, but proved the very reverse. Judging by the results of this, the first election since May, 1914, the Bolshevik baccillus has found French blood an uncongenial medium, for the voters have gone to the poll in numbers unapproached in recent years, and the elections nmv, therefore, be accepted as proof of the temper and purpose of French democracy. One other remarkable feature of the. elections is the number of "new men" who have successfully appealed to the electorate. More than half the membership of the new Chamber is without Pail iamentary experience, and not a few of those elected are strangers to public life in any form. For the rest, the results are a tremendous personal triumph for il. Clemenceau —one of the greatest ever achieved by « French statesman—and for those who stand w.ili him for ordered progress and concentration on the task of reconstruction.