The French Communists Force the Issue
If sane counsels prevail in France after the uproar of the past week it will not be the fault of the Communists. They clearly regard themselves as being in the front line in the cold war—as indeed they are—and they are determined to fight to the last. The violence and disregard for the decencies of debate with which they fought the Government's Bill for the suppression of sabotage was a clear demonstration of the truth that when Communists cannot get their way merely by abusing the forms of democracy they are always ready to destroy those forms. But the struggle in the Assembly is only one front in a threefold battle. Concurrent with the attempt to frustrate Parliament are the bids to prevent rearmament and to promote inflation and breakdown through unreasonable wage demands. The climax may not come until next week, when the first shipment of arms from America is due to arrive. In the Meantime the tension is being kept up through the apparently endless succession of strikes, none of which is a complete suCcess but all of which increase the difficulty of the Government's ultimate task of restoring order. An ominous new phase opened on Wednes- day, when violence broke out at the Ford factory at Poissy—a sign that in the industrial as in the Parliamentary field the Communists do not intend to bow to the wishes of a majority. This is a battle which neither side can win quickly. The passage of the Anti- Sabotage Bill in the early hours of Wednesday morning did not really settle anything. In it the Government acquired a weapon of repression which nobody really wants and to which the Com- munists can point as a proof that real democracy does not exist. If the present wave of disorder dies down Communist resistance to rearmament and to the war in Indo-China will still go on, for the largest single party in France cannot be suppressed overnight. It is being demonstrated in France that the cold war is a war of attrition, and the forceof democracy in that country will need all the support they can get if the Communists are to be worn down at last.
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