M. Herriot in Trouble After the part he played at
Lausanne, M. Herriot has become a person of importance to Europe, and the change in his political fortunes since he got back to Paris is a matter of more than domestic concern. On Tuesday the Chamber divided on the Finance Bill, the Government securing the comfortable majority of 306 to 172. That looks satisfactory enough, but, in fact, M. Herriot only survived by grace of the Right, not the Left. The Socialists voted against him both on a vital amendment and on the Bill as a whole, partly because they disapproved of some of the Government's economies and partly because the Government rejected an economy proposal of their own (suspension of the annual training of military reservists), and their leader, M. Blum, went out of his way to emphasize the gravity of the rupture. The Tardieu administration left a lamentable financial legacy to its successor, and of the 4 milliards needed to balance the budget only 2} milliards has been voted by the Chamber. The Senate, to which the measure now goes, may stiffen it up, which will mean another crisis when it returns to the Chamber. The Government may either be defeated or saved again by the parties to the Right of it. In the latter event its general political orientation would inevitably be affected.
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