Schuman or de Gaulle
France continues to live, politically, from hand to mouth. M. Schuman has succeeded in passing through the Assembly his Govern- ment's special levy—or, rather, in assuring that the Bill for a special levy passed two months ago has not had the gist amended out of it. As he made the voting on many of the amendments a question of confidence, his Government remains in office. But it is still uneasily placed, and its recent narrow majorities show that the defection of a few more supporters in the Assembly, or even an accident, would, be sufficient to bring about its fall. If it did fall, and if in its disappearance was swept away the conception of a " third force," then it is true that the only possible development would be the accession to power of General de Gaulle. That, at any rate, seems to be the lines along which the General himself is thinking. In his speech at Compiegne on Sunday he declared that everything was ready for his return to power, and though some observers have de- tected a more conciliatory note towards the other non-Communist parties in his speech there is not much indication that he regards the " third force " as being a factor of substantial political value. True, General de Gaulle, like so many others in western Europe, has seen in the Czech revolution an urgent warning of the need for all non-Communists to unite, but it would be inconsistent with his character and reasoning if he were to admit that this union could be effected otherwise than under his own banner. The General is most unlikely to jettison from his programme any of the policies—including fresh elections and a revision of the Consti- tution—which have so far kept him apart from the followers of M. Schuman. After all, he has all along urged that these are neces- sary as a bulwark against Communism, and the greater the menace the more urgent is the need for a bulwark. But fundamentally the graph of the General's political chances still follows closely the graph of the cost of foodstuffs, for it is only a further rise in the cost of living that can for certain break the Schuman Government. The price graph is still steady.
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