FRENCH “BIG FOUR”

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20916, 22 September 1939, Page 5

FRENCH “BIG FOUR”

YOUNG INNER CABINET TO RUN THE WAR (Time Air Mail Service.) LOXD'ON, August 30 France has appointed a "Big Four” ' to run the country in war. They are MM. Daladier, Sarraut, Bonnet and Mandel. They make up a comparatively young inner Cabinet. Their combined ages total 231 years, giving an average of about 58. This is five years below the average age of the British Inner Cabinet: Mr Chamberlain (70), Sir John Simon (66;, Lord Halifax (58), and Sir Samuel lloare (59). Nevertheless each of France’s Big Four has had a long experience of high office. Edouard Daladier, Prime Minister and Minister of War, is 55. He has been three times Prime Minister and several times War Minister. He is short, but heavily built. He didn’t like the Munich Agreement. Albert Sarraut, Minister of the Interior, is 68. He is the grand old man of the Radical-Socialist Party and has been called Daladier’s political godfather. He was Prime Minister in 1933, and has held almost every portfolio. He is short, plump, cleanshaven, and wears large spectacles. The Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, Foreign Minister, is 55, like Daladier. He has been Finance Minister and has held most of the lesser Cabinet posts. Of medium height, he lias a large nose but little hair. He is an astute politician, and has oftten been tipped as a future Prime Minister. Although a RadicalSocialist, his chief support comes from the Right, which supports the Daladier Government against the Socialists on conditions. He was one of the greatest believers in the Munich Agreement, but he marches with his chief now. Georges Mandel, Minister for the Colonies, is only 53, and one of the most brilliant men in France. During the war and after he was Clemenceau’s political secfetary and had a great influence over the Tiger. He is a Jew, slim dark and, his real name is Rothschild. They call him the “Disraeli” of France. Mandel’s appointment to the Inner Cabinet means that Daladier has no intention at all of giving way, for Mandel represents the spirit of Clemence.au the Implacable.