In prejudiced quarters, the usual scare has been raised about France. The finances are in disorder; the currency is quaking; Blum has resigned; the Government has fallen; Bolshevik revolution is very near; and the Exhibition is not ready either. But, in truth, what happened last week in France only shows the extraordinary flexibility of the French Parliamentary apparatus.
In Great Britain, governments often change their policies without changing their men. In France, they usually change their men without changing their policy. In Great Britain, a Minister enters a department expecting to stay there three or four years. In France he makes his bow of greeting or farewell-here to-day and gone to-morrow-to the permanent official who keeps the whole thing going. In Great Britain, the Cabinet is the Government. In France, it is the Chamber; and all parts of the Chamber within certain limits co-operate for a perfectly understood common purpose. In the British Parliament, there is a marked and felt dearth of men of high ability. In France, there is a plethora. The whole beehive of the French Chamber and Senate buzzes about vehemently, but with a clear purpose in accordance with the spirit of the hive.
Many countries, not excluding our own, are apt to regard the French as a vain, volatile, fanciful, hysterical nation. As a matter of fact, they are one of the most grim, sober, unsentimental, calculating and tenacious races in the world. At this present moment, all Frenchmen, from militant Monarchists to militant Communists, are resolved that France shall be defended, and that the freedom which the French people gained in the Revolution shall not be invaded or restricted from without or from within. France has always been prodigal of the blood of her sons; but she has a great reluctance to pay taxes. The British are good at paying taxes, but detest drill. The French do not mind drill, but avoid taxes. Both nations can still fight, if they are convinced there is no other way of surviving; but in such a case France would have a small surplus and Britain a small army.
M. Blum has played a big part. He has been Prime Minister for more than a year. In France-where the leading men take it in turn to govern-this is already a considerable feat. Blum filled with distinction a period in the life of France, which but for him might have been a hiatus. The French wage-earners were not having as good a deal as the wealth of France and her civilization warranted. Their standards were definitely below those which we have established in our own moist, misty, and sometimes fog-bound island. They meant to make a push (in German, 'putsch') for a larger share in the Gallic commonwealth. M. Blum has given expression to this intention. At the same time, in foreign policy he has brought France nearer than she has ever been before to the two Western, liberal democracies who speak the English tongue. And always the greatest care and expense have been lavished upon the army and other defence forces. All have been agreed on this. Even the Communists have paraded the streets crying, 'Long Live the Army of the Republic.' The opponents of France would make a profound mistake if they were to undervalue her inherent national and moral strength at the present juncture.
There is, however, serious criticism open against the Blum Government. In facing their great difficulties at home, they were found far too ready to take the easy course in finance and social legislation. It may be that they had little choice in view of the temper of organised labour. The present financial situation of France is discreditable to any Administration. The Senate which, unlike our House of Lords, is confident of its own strength within the limits of the constitution, has been justified in its intervention. The reconstruction which has been so smoothly effected was a step at once imperative and salutary. The demand for powers of financial dictatorship by a Government and a Finance Minister who had such a sorry tale to tell was not one which ought to have been accepted.
When our Socialists brought us to the disreputable collapse of 1931, Great Britain could never have recovered without their being displaced from office. No party has the right to involve a country in financial confusion, and then ride off upon a claim for greater executive power to cope with 'speculators' and 'high finance.' Such methods would speedily achieve the ruin even of the wealthiest State. The establishment of credit, and the repatriation of fugitive capital, can only be achieved by confidence. Exported capital will not return to be confiscated or squandered. In all the circumstances the changes made are the least which the situation demanded.
The Government of the experienced M. Chautemps, in which M. Blum patriotically takes the second place, will fully maintain the strength of France and her place in the European peace system. It is too much to hope that the financial difficulties will now be solved. They will be tided over, and in a sense met, by further devaluation, by more taxes and more economies, not affecting national defence. This Government, like all French Governments, is one of transition. I am very careful not to prophesy. 'Never prophesy unless you know!' But it would certainly not surprise me if M. Chautemps' Government proved to be a stepping stone to something very like a National Government, even in the course of the present year.
France is not going to be the country to betray the cause of democracy. Nor will she be false to the inspiration of freedom and individualism which was the message-however falsified in practice-of the French Revolution. The 'will to live' is strong in the French people. They will not fail mankind in these years, when civilisation has to be defended at once from the armed menace of dictatorship and from the morbid degeneration of Trotskyite Communism. With the moral support of the French military strength, other free and anxious States, the democracies of Europe, may be aided to maintain a firm and steadfast front against tyranny. And if peace is preserved the European masses may gain their share of the shorter hours, improved standards of living, and larger opportunities which nature, guided by science, stands ready to bestow on all her children who serve with strong right arm the causes of justice and freedom.
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