France Reforming Herself M. Doumergue has said at last what
some statesman had to say sooner or later about constitutional reform in France. In his wireless address to the nation on Monday he foreshadowed changes based mainly on the experience of this country, paying, incidentally, a high tribute, as Talleyrand did more than a century ago, to the British Constitution. The most important of the specific pro- posals which the Doumergue Government is to attempt to carry through consist of amendments to the Constitution, giving the Prime Minister of the day the right of dissolu- tion ; confining to Ministers the right to propose measures involving additional taxation ; and placing the engage- ment of civil servants on a basis which will withhold from them the right to strike. The first two proposals will provoke little opposition, for there is hardly anything to be said against them. The third has already enraged the Left, for the Socialist Party lives largely on exploitation of the grievances of the small fonctionnaires. It by no means follows that what can be done in Great Britain can be done in France, but it is quite certain that it will be the better for France in the long run if it can. The insta- bility of French Governments has been a grave obstacle to international negotiations in the past twenty years, and any reforms that tend to lengthen the average life of administrations in France will be for the good of Europe.
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