1 FEBRUARY 1952, Page 18

The French Socialists

SIR,—One hesitates to challenge Professor Brogan on a question of fact, but he is surely wrcng is asserting that the French Socialists were the main 'beneficiaries of the new electoral law. The previous system would indeed have given them sixteen fewer seats in metro- politan France; but it would have deprived each of the other centre groups (M.R.P., Radicals and allies, and moderates) of more than twenty. The new law put a premium upon party alliances; but in many areas, especially the west, these were formed on a clerical or conservative basis, excluding the Socialists.—Yours faithfully, - P. M. WILLIAMS. Nuffield College, Oxford.