THE GRAVE-DIGGERS
SIR,—The recent behaviour of the French Assembly merits criticism, but not misrepre- sentation. You claim that 'the opposition to the agreements was almost consistently dis- reputable,' moved by greed or spite or cowardice. You write of the alcohol and North African lobbies; their leading spokesmen voted for the Government. You condemn M. Bidault for voting against the treaties merely to destroy thascabinet; in the decisive division he did not do so. You do not say that many of M. Mendes-France's staunchest supporters felt unable to follow him on this occasion. M. Lcjeune risked expulsion from his ' party, M. Soustelle probably lost his chance of high office, M. Herriot is at the end of his political life. Were they moved by cowardice or greed or spite?
German rearmament faced every deputy with a terrible crisis of conscience. American comment has recognised this, but not the Spectator. 'He that accuses all mankind of cor- ruption,' wrote Burke, 'is sure to convict only one.'—Yours faithfully,
Jesus College, Oxford
PHILIP WILLIAMS
[The note in the Spectator was necessarily written before the last vote in the French Assembly, but M. Bidault's abstention then after his previous votes against the Paris agreements was due to his pairing with M. Robert Schuman (who had voted for the agreements) in order not to split the M RP. As for the alcohol and 'North African lobbies, the fact that nearly a hundred fewer deputies voted for the agreements on the vote on the first clause than voted for them in October just after they had been concluded surely indicates some kind of parti-pris. North Africa and alcohol arc subjects which have alienated a number of right-wing deputies from M. Mendes-France, and bringing a government down over some other question than that on which one is opposed to it is an old custom in French politics. However some of the leaders of these factions voted (and M. Reynaud, for instance, abstained), their followers must have accounted for some of the Radical, Inde- pendent and Gaullist votes cast against the agreements. No doubt, the motives of some of the deputies were more honourable, but the note also spoke of the 'blind stupidity' of those who sincerely voted against the agree- ments.—Editor—Spectator.] .
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