The Dictatorship in France
The change of political structure which has been effected in France by resolution of the National Assembly was described in a German broadcast as a " formal and superficial imitation of German social and political reconstruction " in which Germany is not interested. President Lebrun disappears into private life. Marshal Petain has signalised his accession to power by decreeing three Constitutional Acts 'declaring his assumption of office and the abrogation of Article II of the Constitutional Law of 1875, and defining the nature of his own office. He appoints and dismisses Ministers, he exercises leg's- lative power in the Council of Ministers till new Assemblies are formed, he promulgates laws, controls the Army, negotiates treaties, and indeed can do anything except declare war. In fact Marshal Petain appears to be as much dictator of France as Hitler is of Germany, with this profound difference—that the Petain regime has come into being at a moment when France lies prostrate under the conquering Germans. The Marshal's projects for maintaining a Senate and creating a Corporative Lower House, and for decentralising government by restoring the provinces as administrative areas, interesting as they are, are of less interest than they would be if there were any assurance that the present regime was to be per- manent.
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