Anglo-French Relations
The speech of General de Gaulle before the Consultative Assembly last Tuesday did little to clarify either the Syrian-Lebanese dispute or the immediate prospect of more harmonious Anglo-French rela- tions. But it did reveal,-by the reactions it provoked, a widespread criticism—especially amongst staunch resisters—of the French Pro- visional Government for its handling of foreign policy. The truth would seem to be that it had under-estimated the inflammable possi- bilities of France's claims in the Near East, and by asserting
• these a haute voix the General has incurred the charge of losing a sense of proportion in foreign policy as a whole. His proposal, in reply to Mr. Ghurchill, that a Five-Power Conference (of the " Big Five ") should consider the affairs of the Near East as a whole, is considered more fully by a contributor in this issue. That such a conference could scarcely be confined to one pan only of the Arab
world, and would logically involve discussion of France's position in North Africa, is a prospect which General de Gaulle does not appear to have contemplated. He has repeated, yet again, his hope of " a solution which will preserve this Anglo-French friendship, which is the foundation of our policy and essential to international harmony." The Socialist Party carried in the Assembly the demand for an Anglo-French pact, to complete the triangle of Anglo-Soviet and Franco-Soviet pacts. And last Monday was celebrated in France as the fifth anniversary of the famous broad- cast which General de Gaulle made from London. It is necessary in both Britain and France that there should be constant awareness that smooth co-operation is a common interest transcending errors of judgement ; and it is by skill in preventing such frictions, and speed in removing them when they occur, that the quality of statesmanship in both countries will be assessed by public opinion on both sides of the Channel.
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