Clemenceau Revival?

The growing opposition in the Chamber of Deputies of the Bloc National (whose foremost leaders are President Millerand, ex-Premier "Tiger" Clemenceau, Deputy Andre Tardieu) to Premier Raymond Poincare was accentuated by his illness, reported from fatigue.

Gustave Herve, editor-in-chief of the Victoire, who in 1917 was foremost in the clamor for Clemenceau, and who is now believed to speak for the Elysee, wrote thus of Premier Poincaee: "It is most regrettable that a man who is so upright, a patriot so sincere, a worker so prodigious, should fail France which counted so much on him. By whom can he be replaced? Is there none better among our politicians? Yes, there is old Clemenceau and his team. They made the Treaty of Versailles which was not perfect, which was not as good as it might have been, but which was as good as it could be with allies like Wilson and Lloyd George who helped us to win the war and without whom we could not make peace.

"Clemenceau alone has enough prestige in America and England to mend the broken pots and at the same time prevent Germany from interpreting the departure of Poincare as the capitulation of France.

If the President of the Republic does not wish to take full powers (as he is advised) and himself establish for six months a dictatorship of public safety, he must without hesitation put us for the second time in the hands of Clemenceau."

Although the Left Centre and some of the Bloc National, which is near the Extreme Right in politics, remain faithful to Premier Poincare, it is quite certain that his friends and his foes are not blind to his physical ailments. The Premier's apparently strong position in the Chamber is due to a large number of Deputies, particularly those of the Radical Bloc, who refuse to cast their votes either for or against Poincare's measures. In most cases this abstention is a protest against Poincare's foreign policy or against his abuse of the parliamentary system. Actually Premier Poincare's position in the Chamber is not at all solid and an imminent Government defeat is neither improbable nor impossible.

"Tiger" Clemenceau, meanwhile, refused to be hurried back to make his bow on the political stage. He was reported as anxious to make sure that there was a real need for him before he would consent to emerge from the Green Room of retirement.