French Communists
The latest outburst by the French Communist Party, which began with riots immediately after the signature of the German contract and the E.D.C. Treaty and is fi7iling out in small and sporadic strikes, may not be quite over; but it does at least appear that it is being kept alive mainly by the French police. The charge against M. Duclos of attempting to disturb internal security still stands, as does the charge against persons unknown of attempts on the external security of the State. The search for weapons and documents has now reached the stage at which the task becomes mainly one of expert sorting and classification, which may possibly lead to further charges against individuals. The need to go through this process is not removed by the fact that the Communists are now showing signs of wanting to lie low, and their friends are attempting to play down the whole incident. Much may still be learned about the immediate aims and methods of the French Com- • munist Party. But so far as the public is concerned, particu- larly the public of other countries than France, perhaps even more may be learned about French Communism through an article, based on the results of a survey by the French Institute of Public Opinion, which was recently published in the maga- zine Realities. It was, of course, always clear that within a voting strength of 5,000,000 a distinction must be very sharply drawn between full members of the Communist Party and the vast majority who, while voting for the party, have little con- trol over its policy. The enquiry underlines this distinction by showing how many of the French Communist voters hold opinions which deviate from the party line. For example 65 per cent. of them would prefer to be neutral in a war between America and Russia. But at the same time it shows how successfully certain items of propaganda must have been drilled into millions of Communist sympathisers. For example, 56 per cent. of them profess to believe that the United States is an aggressive country. The overwhelming impression given by these answers is that the majority of Frenchmen who vote Communist are not so much convinced as misled.
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