Take It or Leave It

Having had twelve of them since the 1789 Revolution, the French should be experts at writing constitutions, but they still have to produce one that really works for long. Last week, with his customary lofty dignity, Premier Charles de Gaulle swept into the Palais Royal to defend his own proposed constitution before a special 39-man parliamentary committee set up to examine it. De Gaulle was out to solve two major problems that have at times virtually paralyzed his country--the chaos of a supreme but irresponsible Parliament, and the long struggle to find some permanent policy for France's colonies.

The quiet that had settled over France since May--a mood of let-Charles-do-it --had been broken by the protests of the non-Communist left (led by former Premier Pierre Mendes-France) against giving as much power to the President as De Gaulle proposed. The parliamentary committee itself--led by De Gaulle's old friend, 79-year-old Paul Reynaud, and composed entirely of men who had voted De Gaulle to power--voted against De Gaulle's Article 21, which requires any member of the Assembly to resign if made a Cabinet minister. They also had objections to the emergency dictatorial powers given to the President in Article 14. "The constitution," huffed one ex-Premier, who apparently has no doubt as to who the first President of the Fifth Republic will be, "should not be written for De Gaulle, but for 50 years ahead. The President after De Gaulle might be dangerous."

The Missing Word. Speaking like a stern parent. De Gaulle refused to budge. Events of the last twelve years, during which the whims of the Assembly had toppled 25 governments, proved, said he, that Articles 14 and 21 are "indispensable." Then De Gaulle moved on to a subject the committee was anxious to hear more about--the question of the territories overseas, including the vast areas of French West Africa (see next page), French Equatorial Africa and Madagascar. For these, De Gaulle offered three choices: 1) status quo,as semi-autonomous territories; 2) integration as departments of France; or 3) some form of federation with France, with increased self-government.

He did not offer a fourth choice--independence--and the absence of this magic word set off predictable outcries among some African politicos. "France," said French West Africa Deputy Hammadoun Dicko, "must recognize our independence and not only our right to independence." After hearing a nationalist pep talk by Ghana's Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah ("Make first for independence, and you will get the rest!"), a meeting of African party leaders in Dahomey called upon France to help her territories form a "United States of Africa." De Gaulle apparently would have the West African territories separate states affiliated with France. For all their protests, Africans were careful not to ask for too much too soon, lest France cut off its vital economic aid. What Africa really wanted, explained Deputy Dicko earnestly, "is independence in association with France, not independence-secession."

"Risks & Perils." As on the powers of the presidency, De Gaulle was firm to the point of bluntness. He had no rigid conception of what the colonial federation should be, nor was he against allowing the federation to form alliances with other African states in "a vast community of free peoples." As he put it, "the work that has been started is immense and new: to build an ensemble on the basis of spontaneous acceptance [by France itself] and the overseas territories . . . of an association adapted to the realities of the modern world."

But, said he, in effect: either the territories must accept association, or they must secede and suffer all the "risks and perils" (i.e., no more aid) that that would involve. Then, having stated his case, the Premier strode out of the Palais Royal, announced that he would visit French West Africa and Madagascar to sell his program in person before the people troop to the polls to vote yes or no next month. He was counting on the fund of good will he had earned among Africans with his wartime Free French proclamations from Brazzaville on the Congo, and on a dawning African awareness of the possibility of a more fruitful future in partnership.

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