Nibbler at Work

France's new Premier Edgar Faure has set himself a characteristic goal: to steer a middle course between Mendes-France's contentious boldness and the do-nothingism of Mendes' predecessors. "I know people will talk about my having a small appetite," he said. "I don't eat everything in sight. I nibble."*

Last week Edgar Faure nibbled successfully at the budget, which has been hanging fire in the Assembly for three months. The Socialists, whose main business in life is looking after the government fonctionnaires, were demanding all-round increases of $371 million. Faure, who had offered a mere $137 million, smiled and upped the ante to $164 million. In an atmosphere of almost dizzying good will, Faure won his first Assembly vote, 364 to 242.

In the Senate, Faure pushed ahead with a headache inherited from Mendes: the vital Paris accords. The Senate has no veto power, but by an unfavorable vote, or even by tacking on an amendment, it can send the accords back to the Assembly for another debate and another vote, a laborious business that might prove lethal. Faure was determined to get the accords approved "without amendment and without delay."

To carry his fight in the Senate, Faure relied on his Foreign Minister, Antoine Pinay, the small-businessman's Premier for ten months in 1952. Pinay is no specialist in foreign affairs, but he boned up fast, and made an able 2 1/2-hour speech.

If France does not approve the accords, said Pinay, it will be dangerously isolated. To prove his point he produced a letter from Sir Winston Churchill, saying that if France left her place vacant at international councils, "sooner or later another nation [meaning West Germany] would take her chair." Pinay's case was further bolstered by a message from President Eisenhower, giving assurance that U.S. forces would stay in Europe "while a threat to that area exists." This important U.S. guarantee had been given during the EDC struggle, but it had lapsed with the death of EDC.

With such help as this, Pinay was able to get the Senate to begin debate on March 22. The fixing of an early date is a favorable augury for ratification.

* A remark reminiscent of Marshal Joseph ("Papa") Joffre's first attempt to deal with the deadlock on the Western Front in World War I. Said he amiably, "Je les grignote" (I am nibbling them).

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