France's Emergency The Peace of Munich has at length aroused
France to a realisation of her weakness in the air. The immediate objective is the construction of 4,000 aeroplanes, which would give France a first line strength of 2,600 with the necessary reserves. The cost is estimated at k50,000,000 ; but an essential preliminary is to modify the 4o-hour week, so that France may have some chance of competing with a Germany whose workers in some cases work as much as 6o hours a week. In France the working class is still so far from realising the necessities of the emergency that it still refuses to accept the 45-hour week decree applied by M. Daladier to the aircraft industry. The workers, however, have lost much of their strength by the collapse of the Front Populaire, which now, despite the protests of M. Blum and the Communists, is in full dissolution. The most urgent political question is whether M. Daladier will venture to hold a general election, which may give him a majority based on the union of the Radicals with the Right. With such support he might proceed to suspend the 4o-hour week, even at the cost of provoking strikes and disorder. It is unfortunate that he has not attempted to conciliate the workers by demanding sacrifices from all classes. France's crisis is financial as well as military. M. Daladier could impose increased taxation on the rich. He could prevent the export of capital. And he might disarm a large body of reasonable and well-informed critics by replacing M. Bonnet at the Foreign Office.
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