The party conference of the French Socialists has thrown into
a glaring light their fundamental schism. In a division taken as between a policy of resisting the foreign dictators and a policy of complete pacifism—the former championed by M. Blum, the latter by M. Faure, the party secretary- two-fifths of those voting took the Faure side ; while so many - others abstained, that only just over half the party supported. resistance. The cleavage thus put on record goes a long way to explain past weaknesses in French foreign policy. But from what sources has French proletarian pacifism grown so prevalent ? From doctrinaire Trotskyist teaching, in the first instance ; the large section of the party formerly led by M. Marcel Pivert is practically " P.O.U.M." But secondly, of course, from the ordinary fear of war coupled with propagandised defeatism. M. Faure's argument at the conference was that, with a German birth-rate three times the French and a German chemical- industry ten times the French, any armed resistance by France to Germany has become simply futile. Many comments might be passed on that counsel of despair ; but we will content ourselves with two. First, that the subtle decouragetnent engendered by a falling birth-rate is indeed one of the features of all Western societies. And, secondly, that a civilisation, which should permanently acquiesce in race-suicide, could hope for no long survival. But have we really reached that trough of unworthiness, impotent either to hold up or to hand on the torch that we have received?
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