The French Assembly Fiddles
The two chief characteristics of the issue which has so far prevented the formation of a new French Government—State aid to Church schools—are first, that it is not of major importance and, second, that everybody knows it is not. Either the Socialist- Radical M. Rene Mayer's statement that the essential problems are defence and foreign policy, or the Socialist M. Guy Mollet's assertion that they are the foreign situation and the relation between wages and prices would do as a starting-point for serious discussion. But the insistence of the Catholic M.R.P. that it cannot join in a Government with the other members of the Third Force until the schools question is settled, and settled in the M.R.P.'s own way, indicates that the present Assembly is even less likely to act sensibly and earn public"respect than was its predecessor. So far MM. Queuille, Schuman and.Bidault have refused to try to form a Government, M. Petsche has attempted to draw up an agreed programme and failed, and M. Mayer, in a bold attempt to bring the Assembly to a sense of responsibility with the aid of a sensible statement of policy, has been 'voted down. It is said that M. Mayer relied on public support in his attempt. It is more than likely that, in the hearts of many reasonable French people, he got it. But among the deputies anxiety about the state of public opinion is possibly a little less keen than it was during the apprehensive period which preceded the last election. But, in the longer run, the question whether the older parties can maintain themselves against the pressure of Gaullists on the Right and Communists on the Left • is a very serious one indeed. Until now this inward pressure has had the effect of holding the Third Force together. But if the present pointless manoeuvres continue in the face of the increasingly urgent national and international difficulties then even the willingness of Frenchmen to manage without a stable Government may be strained. The danger would then be that Gaullists and Communists would assume the function of the upper and nether millstones.
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