"Far from Ruined"

It is usual for a Cabinet to "fall," overthrown by an adverse vote, but it can also "jump"--that is, simply resign. This rare but not unprecedented maneuver Premier Camille Chautemps executed in Paris last week, taking full advantage of his great personal triumph in having just put through both Chamber and Senate by huge majorities his Modern Labor Charter (TIME, March 7).

The Premier and Vice Premier Leon Blum have wished for weeks that the Cabinet might fall, so that it could be reconstructed as a "National Government" without the Communists, and Socialist Blum's personal newsorgan, Le Populaire, has been rebuking Stalin harshly about the Moscow trials. When the Communists still insisted upon being friendly last week, Premier Chautemps suddenly talked of asking for powers so sweeping that no Cabinet could have got them and, when leaders of the Popular Front (Communists, Socialists, Radical Socialists) demurred, he claimed in the Chamber that without these powers he could not raise the money France needs for her rearmament--30 billion borrowed francs per year, said the Premier.

There was a general gasp of surprise as Camille Chautemps then, refusing debate and not asking a vote, simply nodded to the members of his Cabinet, who jumped from their seats, followed him out of the Chamber, and few minutes later joined him in presenting their resignations to President Lebrun.

This "jump" was made shortly before the German Army started rolling into Austria last week and the franc was at a twelve-year low. It soon appeared that the great agglomerations of French capital are considerably less frightened of Hitler than of Stalin and his Communists in France. The mere prospect that a National Government was perhaps going to be formed in Paris excluding the Reds was taken as a bull point, French capitalists dumped pounds, gulden and Swiss francs (all of which declined) and bought French francs (which rose) in an optimistic Paris atmosphere--while Austria was being invaded.

Camille Chautemps said, "I hope to get in a little skiing in Switzerland, but helas for the moment the President has asked me to remain here," thus coyly suggesting he may soon again be Premier.

Meanwhile Leon Blum, regarded as the "logical" Premier-designate, since his Socialist Party is at the centre of the existing Left majority in the Chamber, indulged in day after day of desultory bargaining with all parties. Juridical experts of the French Foreign Office contributed to Paris' somewhat fantastic calm by gravely declaring that juridically there was nothing wrong about the German Army's entering Austria at the "invitation" of the Austrian Government. This was, they said, no violation of international law and it was "not invasion"--an opinion which sounded like the Wilhelmstrasse but was actually that of the Quai d'Orsay.

This week, after it had repeatedly appeared that a National Government excluding the Communists might be formed at any moment, Socialist Blum finally came forward with another Popular Front Cabinet which he said he had formed "in principle"--that is, he had failed to form a National Government, was by no means sure he had anything that would hold together.

The chagrin felt at this by middle-class Frenchmen was in contrast to their optimism a few hours before, ably mirrored by New York Timesman P. J. Philip in a cable anticipating formation of a National Government: "If it can be done, it is not unlikely that France will see a quick return to prosperity which will, as in 1926, prove surprising to those who, reading events superficially, are inclined to underestimate this country. For despite these prophets of evil the French situation--so far as internal matters are concerned--is not so desperate as many would like to think. France is very far from having been 'ruined' by the Left Popular Front. There are only 400,000 unemployed out of forty-odd million inhabitants--a figure which compares very favorably with most other countries in which the free capital system is still maintained.

"There is in France none of that penury and want and none of that forced labor which is to be found under the surface of the totalitarian countries. There are very few people in France who do not eat and drink well. There are still very few who do not manage to live within their incomes and save something."

In their cafes and at their firesides, members of the middle-class snorted with vexation at news that Socialist Blum had said "the Communists represent 1,500,000 citizens of France, so they cannot be ignored," and Radical Socialist National Defense & War Minister Edouard Daladier had chimed in, "Since a Communist soldier is considered good enough to die for France, I fail to see why there should not be a Communist in the Cabinet. I am sure that all Frenchmen will fly to the frontier, as they did in 1914, in case of menace from abroad!"

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