RESTORER OF CONFIDENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20989, 16 December 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

RESTORER OF CONFIDENCE

M. Paul Reynaud :

WHEN M. PAUL REYNAUD became Minister of Finance on November 1, 1938, the French financial and economic situation was serious, even critical. He entered upon his task with long, broadnatured views. Although he disagreed with the conservatives on approach to social problems and foreign policy, he created through his competence and ability to inspire confidence, a general agreement that his financial policies represented a favourable and even optimistic trend. In a radio speech he said, “The problem is to make France stronger in the face of an unprecedented situation. People who are enjoying the oldest, mellowest, most humane civilisation, must henceforward live without fear alongside people who are always armed to the teeth and are addressed fanatically by their leaders. If the republican form of government would not suffice, France would be obliged to change its regime in order to survive, but this will not be necessary, as adaptations to the necessities of the moment will show. It is now evident that the things we prize most—liberty, justice, tolerance—can become, not weakness, as some people complacently assume, but strength.” Paul Reynaud Restored Confidence. Capital began to return to France, and from July, 1939, he could point to the winning of four economic battles in maintaining exports and production, reducing unemployment and sustaining gold reserves. Both radicals and conservatives have found fault with his work on the whole and in detail. The radicals accused him of weakening, if not destroying, the social legislation of the popular front governments. The conservatives charged that he had increased tax burdens before the national income had proportionately increased. However much ground there may be for criticisms, M. Reynaud remains the restorer of French finances and one of the greatest organisers of French energy. When the crisis reached its culminating point, after Germany threw its armies into Poland, and France and England took up the challenge to save civilisation, Paul Reynaud’s confidence remained unshaken and infectious. He never dissociated military and diplomatic action from economic-financial-mone-tary resistance. He declared in a speech on September 10, “We begin war under economic and financial conditions very superior to those of the enemy.” He declared no moratorium payments, and contracted for huge armament expenses without exceeding those advances which he could borrow from the Bank of France. He launched the slogan, “If this war becomes a war of attrition, the nation which holds out the last quarter of an hour will be the nation producing the most possible and consuming the least possible.” Paul Reynaud intends to win this battle as he won earlier ones. His past permits us to predict his future, and be confident that, whatever may occur, he will be Equal to the Circumstances, and that his role of authority will increase. M. Reynaud does not resemble the ordinary foreign conception of a Frenchman. He could be taken for an Englishman in London, and for an American in New York. He is rather below medium height, supple and muscular. He is an enthusiastic sportsman, enjoying swimming especially, and often participates in diving competitions with American Ambassador Bullitt at the latter’s country chateau at Chantilly. M. Reynaud comes from a family of mountaineers. He was born at an altitude of more than 4000 feet and possesses great physical endurance. Well groomed, and young in appearance despite the fact that he is approaching 60—such is the physical appearance of the man who, with Premier Paladier. represents one of the best mental equipments and strongest personalities which France possesses in thus critical hour. M. Reynaud is one oi toe most brilliant lawyers attached to the Paris bar. From

(Marcel Hoder in American Paper)

Great French Organiser

his legal training he preserves a fluenev of speech and a gift for exposition which makes him one of the best parliamentary speakers. He can be at once precise and cutting. He is above all a debater in the British style, quick at finding the phrase that explains. His radio talks, which reach a considerable audience, are models of their kind. Paul Reynaud’s culture and intellectual pow'er have made him equally an economist and a financial expert. His open mind finds its interests in history, military science, politics, sociology and diplomacy. More curious about foreign lands than most of his compatriots, he has three times travelled around the globe, becoming acquainted with both the Far East and with the United States, which he has visited several times. After serving in the World War, M. Reynaud entered politics when he was about 40. Although he belonged to the Centre and Right, politically, he has alw-ays Maintained an Independent Attitude, without regard to strict party lines. His first cabinet post was the Ministry of Finance, to which he was appointed in 1929. Then he became Minister of Colonies, and together with Marshal Lyautey organised the Colonial Exposition held in Paris in 1931. He was Minister of Justice and VicePremier in 1932, then abandoned office. M. Reynaud resumed official* duties in April, 1938, when he became Minister of Justice again, holding that post until November 1, wnen he was appointed Minister of Finance. After 1929 he predicted a world crisis which would hit the United States hard, and in 1930 he said that it would spread to France. He then became an advocate of devaluation in opposition to the large newspapers, and to most leading French economists, bankers and Government officials. Yet later he voted against the devaluation law which M. Blum introduced, because he did not believe that this project contained the necessary conditions of success. In 1935, while out of office, M. Reynaud recommended a scheme for military organisation which would, in Us opinion, give France the means to anticipate and thwart impending violations of treaties. He was one of the first French politicians with the vision to see the threat of danger to which France was exposed from totalitarian powers and their instinct for domination. M. Reynaud publicly opposed the policy of Pierre Laval in the conflict between Italy and Ethiopia. This policy caused disagreement between France and England, and left France isolated when the Rhineland was reoccupied. He feared a slow decline of France and an abandonment to a policy of passivity. When, at Premier Daladier’s invitation, M. Reynaud rejoined the cabinet he clearly saw the dangers threatening the French, and with Fiance the peace of the world. He was confident of the remedies that must be applied; for a beginning there must be a stop to concessions and a start of resistance. The crisis of September, 1938, while no surprise to M. Reynaud, was for him, as to many Frenchmen, a Painful Drama of the Conscience. M. Reynaud did not believe in the short term peace which Munich brought. He knew’ France would have only a little time to prepare for a new test, more formidable and doubtless final. He saw that the safety of France depended upon two conditions, firstly, “national unanimity,” as he said in a speech at Pau; and, secondly, in the restoration of financial equilibrium. He declared : “The dangers threatening the pacific are so great and the aspirations of the totalitarian peoples are so formidable, that any division of national forces in any country verges upon treason. Parliamentarism cannot work on the ordinary basis of a party regime.” Addressing all social classes, both “bourgeoisie” and “proletarians,” he urged them to uuitc behind a government of public safety, composed of men who placed themselves above parties.