The Illogical French
By universal consent, Indo-Ohina is a subject which splits the French people from top to bottom and makes and unmakes French Governments. By common sense it is nothing of the sort. Yet for a few hours in the recent debate on the immediate future—not even the ultimate future—of French policy in Indo-China, M. Ramadier's Government tottered. The blame for this completely unnecessary political row rests primarily on the elements of the extreme Right who raised the issue at this time. Secondarily it rests ,on the Com- munists who took up the challenge and twice forced M. Ramadier to ask for a vote of confidence. The miserable compromise with which it all ended—the Communist Ministers formally supporting the vote of credits for the necessary action in Indo-China and tIrt Communist Deputies abstaining—holds no promise of more reason- able behaviour in the future. Nor does the pretence that a party can, at one and the same time, both support and not support a measure, give much credence to the battered myth that the French are a logical people. Since most Frenchmen, including Communists, are agreed that the necessary measures to keep Indo-China within the French Union should be quietly taken, they should refrain from fanning the flames of conventional controversy on this issue. And since all Frenchmen know that France must stand united at this critical hour in her history, the French parties might forego, at least for the time being the luxury of party manoeuvre. But there is a still more fundamental lesson to be learned. If there is any real political sense in France it must sooner or later be accepted that political opposition is something less than war to the death. But by universal consent—again contrary to reason-this is impossible because Frenchmen, it is said, are still fundamentally divided on the issues of the French Revolution. Is it not time this nonsense stopped?
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