The French Constitution
Last week the French Consultative Assembly took the bit between its teeth and rejected the Government's Bill providing for a referen- dum on the constitutional issue, and voted three motions contrary to General de Gaulle's proposals. The General wishes to refer to the people the question whether the pre-war constitution with Chamber and Senate should be restored, or a single Assembly be set up. He has a statesmanlike objection to a return to a constitu- tional system so devised that frequent changes of Government were inevitable, and recalled that there have been '102 French Cabinets in the past 70 years, compared with Britain's 20. The Consultative Assembly, in which the elements of the Left are p6werful, favours the establishment of a single sovereign constituent Assembly ; and, in objecting to the proposal that for seven months after a referendum the Government might continue in office without direct responsibility to the elected Assembly, members went so far as to accuse the General of favouring dictatorship. The Consultative Assembly, it should be remembered, is consultative only, and is not itself a popularly elected body. General de Gaulle, in speaking of the possibility of his resignation, did so, not on the grounds that the Assembly had constitutional rights, but that he could not continue if separated from the representatives of those who were with him in the fight. The debates have been extraordinarily confused, and it is hoped that a compromise may be arrived at between the Assembly and the Government.
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