The Future of France
A heated debate in the French Consultative Assembly at Algiers last Tuesday, in which members insisted that the subjects of dis- cussion should be widened, ended in the postponement of the most important question they have to consider—the restoration of con- stitutional government in France. The Assembly is in critical mood, the Committee of National Liberation is fully sensitive to its criticism, and it is in the light of the Assembly's views that the Committee has revised its proposals for the gradual restoration of de- mocratic government in France. In the plan it has now prepared it is obviously aiming at avoiding two courses which are equally open to objection—first, it must not prolong the authoritarian rule of General de Gaulle and the Committee, but, secondly, it must not rush the procedure of electing a Constitutional Assembly with imperfect registers of voters, and in the absence of prisoners in Germany. Under the scheme there will be no waiting for the liberation of all France; the moment a commune is freed a register of voters will be drawn up, and three months after it is completed municipal elections will be held. When these have been held in two-thirds of the communes, including Paris, a Provisional Assembly will be elected indirectly which will succeed the Consultative Assembly, and choose the head of a Provisional Government. At a still later stage a Constituent Assembly will be elected by the whole of the French people. It is satisfactory that the National Committee and the Consultative Assembly are thrashing this question out so thoroughly now, so that the whole plan can be applied automatically in the various stages of French liberation.
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