M. FAURE'S STRUGGLE
MFAURE has got his majority in the National Assem- bly for the vote of confidence on his Algerian policy. . As far as it goes this is a victory for statesmanship and good sense as well as for the Prime Minister, who showed himself capable of unusual directness in putting forward poli- cies which he has indeed always pursued, but frequently by indirect means. However, this success in gaining a larger major- ity than had been anticipated still leaves the Government's position in some doubt. Groups like the dissident Gaullists, who are among those most fiercely opposed to M. Faure's North African policy, voted for him on this issue.
Our Paris correspondent, Mr. Darsie Gillie, tells us that the reason for their attitude was an unwillingness to take responsi- bility for leaving France without a government on the eve of the Geneva conference, and, by precipitating a political crisis, to play into the hands of the German nationalist parties in the plebiscite on the Saar statute next Sunday. It is unlikely that the Prime Minister will be able to profit from similar feelings indefinitely. He has made enemies both on the Left and the Right. Those who want what M. Faure wants in North Africa do not like his way of going about it, or his preference for a centre Right coalition over a centre Left one. But a centre Right coalition contains too many people who dislike his North African policy to stay together while he pursues it.
M. Faure has at least piloted M. Mendes-France's policy for Tunisia into, port, probably made irreversible the only sane policy for Morocco, and brought opinion a stage nearer to a sound approach to the problem of Algeria. But meanwhile the French political machine has been exhibited at its worst. The effect of this machine is to make political loyalty more effective on secondary issues—whether vested interests or cherished political dogmas—than on main issues. It results in the absurdity of a government having to fight for its life on the eve of the Saar referendum and the Geneva meeting and at the very moment when an impressive front is most important in North Africa itself.
The President of the Republic in his speech at Dunkirk said that the worst feature of the present political system was the perpetual harassment of the Prime Minister, never sure of his authority on the morrow and soon reduced in consequence to moral and physical exhaustion. The truth of this is evident to the eyes of anyone who watches the occupants of the ministerial pew in the National Assembly from the press gallery. But there is a worse consequence of the present system. When results can only be achieved by such devious means governments cease to have any claim on the loyalty of French citizens, especially of young citizens. M. Mendes-France fell with his work halt- done but kept much, at least, of his prestige. M. Faure has advanced towards several of the same goals, but has damaged not only his own prestige but that of government as such. The complication and obscurity of French politics, much increased since the war, are two of the main factors destroying French civic spirit. The devious course of government is one of the main causes of the widespread and dangerous indiscipline. That there are strong and healthy currents of opinion in France is quite evident. The difficulty is to employ them usefully. Neither the first Resistance enthusiasm of 1944-45 nor General de Gaulle's French People's Rally has been successful. Indeed the main body of those elected under the General's banner have (disowned by him) given the most deplorable of all examples as to how to make a political machine unworkable. There are still many who put their faith in M. Mendes-France to achieve a position at the next elections which will make effective government possible. He has amongst other merits that of telling the elector that if things are going wrong it is ultimately the elector's fault. But the elector cannot overcome his past faults and their consequences in a moment. As is so often the case in France's sombre moments there is at least the comfort that a great deal more sense is now being talked about France's major problems than was the case when they could have been much more easily solved, but the problem for both the politi- cian and the citizen of good will is to give practical expression to that good sense in a political scene so strewn with the discarded impedimenta of past battles.
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