NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Parliamentary situations in France and Germany have both developed considerably during the week. On Thursday, June 5th, M. Herriot refused the invitation of the French President to form a Ministry, and thus implied that the President was an unacceptable person. M. Millerand then felt compelled to ask M. Franc,ois Marsal to form a stop-gap Ministry for the mere purpose of conveying a Presidential message to the Chamber. The President has no other constitutional means of communicating with Parliament. On Tuesday the Chamber refused even "to enter into relations with a Ministry which, by its composition, is a negation of the rights of Parliament." The Ministry considered this a vote of "no confidence," and, as had been expected, resigned.. At the same time the Senate, by a majority of ten, also refused to enter into a debate on the position of the President. M. Millerand decided to consider these two votes as hostile to himself and he resigned on Tuesday evening. On Thursday, when we go to press, the parties of the Left are meeting to choose their Presidential candidate, who will most probably be M. Painleve. On Friday the National Assembly at Versailles will elect the new President who, it is almost certain, will ask M. Herriot to form the new Cabinet. On Monday the new Ministry will come before the Chamber to make its declaration of policy. Thus the French political crisis may be said to have ended. We deal with its constitutional and European aspects in our first leading article.
