THE FOURTH REPUBLIC
HOW many months or weeks or days separate us from the opening of a Second Front in Western Europe no one knows except the handful of leaders whose business it is to know. But amid all the uncertainties of time and place one virtual certainty stands out ; there will be bitter and desperate conflicts on the soil of France for the liberation of France. That, at least, was assumed without any question by General de Gaulle in the notable speech which he addressed to the French Consultative Assembly at Algiers on Saturday. It was a speech delivered by a leader before action, action which might not be actually immediate but could not by the nature of things be long delayed. It was delivered to an audience impressively reminded of French divisions by the fact that M. Pierre Pucheu, condemned by a French military court, was at that moment awaiting execution. It was delivered in the consciousness that the men upholding the freedom and inde- pendence of France at Algiers had not been accorded by their major •Allies in the _struggle against Germany the full recognition which they considered their due. In such conditions General de Gaulle, who is primarily a soldier and has had the role of political leader thrust on him by circumstance, had a difficult task to discharge. He must be congratulated on his handling of it. The speech was clear in arrangement, confident in outlook, statesman- like in conception. It stated in moderate language France's reasonable expectations, it claimed for her a rightful place among the Great Powers of Europe, it marked out the path to the restora- tion of a constitutional regime resting on universal suffrage, and it sketched the form of society which the Fourth Republic so created would foster. It was a speech which for France's allies made understanding of France's aspirations appreciably clearer. and co-operation with the France of tomorrow (and still more of today) appreciably easier.
On one point there will be universal agreement. The stability of Europe requires the existence of a strong and united France pledged to a policy of close and constant co-operation both with Britain and with the smaller countries to the north of her, Belgium and Holland. That means a France more responsible and more resolute than the France of the 593o's, a France which it will be no simple matter to create. There are today three Frances to consider, the France represented by the Committee of National Liberation ; in-close, though necessarily limited, association with it the France of the underground resistance movement ; and the France of Vichy. The future of the Vichy clique is not a matter of great importance. Its leaders will probably endeavour to abscond when the liberating movement approaches the region of France where they are today quartered. That they command suffi- cient following to be capable of organising anything like a civil war against the invading French force and the unleashed resistance movement there is no reason whatever to believe. As for Vichy today, it causes concern at Algiers on one ground alone, a lingering anxiety lest in certain circumstances the American Government should be ready to treat with Petain, as the Allies in Italy have found it convenient to treat with, and even to maintain, Badoglio. There are obvious differences between the two cases, but they are hardly worth arguing, for a statement issued on Tuesday at Wash- ington has made it perfectly clear that so far as the United States is concerned the only purpose of contact with Vichy is to destroy Vichy. That is categorical and should dispel all suspicions. Presi- dent Roosevelt, it is true, has drafted some instructions, which do not entirely satisfy Algiers, regarding the relation of the invading armies to French civilians, his desire being to provide for the possibility that in some regions there may be serviceable muni- cipal or departmental authorities which do not identify themselves' with General de Gaulle. There may be, but they will be few and unimportant. But both justice and expediency support the claims of the French Committee of Liberation to speak and act in the name of France till the people of Franee can register their own decision at the polls. Directives to that effect should be given to General Eisenhower.
But General de Gaulle's speech, and it is one of its grearinerits, looked beyond the battle to the vital and formidable task of the restoration of France. What is to be the nature of this Fourth Republic whose outlines the French Committee already descries with the eye of faith across the gulf which still intervenes between conception and realisation? General de Gaulle is under no illusions about the magnitude of the difficulties that impend.
The problems to be faced, he recognises, to name only the chief of them, " will concern the prosecution of the war at the side of the Allies, the indispensable participation of the French in the elaboration and application of the armistices in Europe, the main- tenance of public order, the establishment of a purified admin- istration, the mechanism of justice, food supply, currency, wage- rates, a labour regime, the organisation of production, foreign ex- change and communications, public health, the restoration of the essential liberties—of the person, of trade unions, of the Press—an Information organisation, the return of prisoners and deportees, the resettlement of refugees, and finally material preparation for the great national consultation out of which will emerge the National Constituent Assembly which will frame the regime of the Fourth Republic." It is worth quoting the detailed list of these herculean labours, for both the destiny of France and the relationship between France and Britain will depend on the degree of real understanding of France's almost insuperable problems which exists this side of the English Channel.
Our sympathy with France is not in question, but it must be a sympathy which engages the intellect as well asethe emotions. France will need all the help she can get, but she will inevitably be sensitive, perhaps abnormally sensitive, about anything that looks like interference, or even suggests doubts about her capacity to deal with the immense undertakings that face her. She on her part must display practical sagacity. Administration, in the lower as well as the higher ranges, can only be carried on by men with some experience as administrators. If everyone great or small who ever had association with Vichy is to be proscribed the position may become impossible. Plenty of conscientious civil servants, there is reason to bekeve, remained at their posts under Vichy out of the simple realisation that their work was necessary if the day- to-day needs of the people of France were to be met. They were neither defeatists nor appeasers ; they were not, primarily, political at all ; they were men with essential jobs to do who thought it essential to go on doing them. The Fourth Republic will still have need of their services. That, of course, is France's own affair, but it is permissible to indicate how one of her problems looks from the outside. Whether she will have to solve the totality of her problems at once depends on military developments, but that is on the face of it unlikely. It could only happen if Germany collapsed unexpectedly as the result of defeat in the East and withdrew her forces from France without fighting. The prob- ability, as has been said, is something very different, and General de Gaulle made it clear that what he contemplated was the libera- tion of his country region by region, civil administration being established behind the advancing armies, in collaboration, no doubt, in the first instance with the Allied military authorities. There will, of course, be no Amgot in France. In each municipality, or commune, and ultimately each department, the inhabitants will provide their own councils and administrative organs, assisted where needed by Frenchmen with the armies, specially trained in such activities as civil defence, organisation of transport, food distribution, and the like. Gradually a freed France will be in a position to create its central government, based, it is to be observed, if General de Gaulle represents the general view, on universal adult suffrage—France thus belatedly conceding the vote to women. A long road is to travel yet before the goal is reached, and we can do something in this country to make it easier for the feet that must tread it. Memories of the France of 1939 must be discarded. It is not the Russia of 1939 that evokes our admiration today, nor the Russia of 1939 with whom we are pledged to co-operation in the war and after it. France is as capable of evolving, and of profiting by suffering, as Russia. Her destinies and ours are inevitably linked. That is a matter not of volition but of geography. If the wisdom and resolution of both of us is what it should be that association will be the warrant of peace to all Western Europe.
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