MendZs-France Still There
Our Paris Correspondent writes :
The French Assembly after being told for months if not years that it must make up its mind about EDC has done so in the least dignified manner possible. No doubt the advo- cates of EDC bear a heavy responsibility for this through their long delays, but they did at least represent a coherent policy whereas the opponents of the treaty represent half a dozen different incompatible points of view. It is, however, a matter for satisfaction that France still has a Government. Since the division of deputies for or against the EDC corresponded to no possible government coalition, it always seemed probable that whichever way the final vote went the Government in power would collapse. With some loss of dignity and prestige as a man of decision, M. Mendes-France has avoided that. To him therefore falls the task of building a new majority behind a new version of the Atlantic policy. There is no doubt about the energy with which he is undertaking this. While M. Mendes-France has been a critic of some aspects of EDC itself, he has been still more a critic of its advocates' own refusal to recognise how strong was the opposition to it —an opposition which was a political fact of the first impor- tance even though it was incoherent and contradictory. France's greatest political weakness has been that the issue of foreign policy has cut across all other issues, dividing every party except the Communists. M. Mendes-France's own future, the future of France in the next few years, and ultimately that of NATO, now depends upon the possibility of devising some sort of successor to EDC which will include Great Britain. Britain's absence from EDC was EDC's greatest difficulty for almost all non-Communist Frenchmen. To Great Britain only would French opinion be prepared to yield in practice the leadership in European affairs. Almost any defence arrangement within which Britain showed her deter- mination not to allow Germany to become the dominant Power of Western Europe would be acceptable. If M. Mendes- France can introduce anything on these lines, he can re-solder his majority and what is more, French politics will recover some measure of stability.
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