FRANCE: Dead Men

During the War $3,404,000,000 worth of munitions and supplies was bought in the U. S. for France by one of gruff Premier Georges (“Tiger”) Clemenceau’s hard young men, M. Andrè Tardieu, who returned from Washington with thick-rimmed spectacles and a breezy pugnacity which made Frenchmen start calling him “Tardieu I’Américain”—no compliment intended. Last week at Lyon, in a witness box, M. Tardieu testified with what seemed to most Frenchmen like the brutality of an American gangster.

He said that between 1926 and 1932, during which years he was Premier of France and held various Cabinet portfolios, he on at least 20 occasions gave Government money in banknote form to Colonel Count Francois de La Rocque, leader of the Fascist War veterans’ organization, Croix de Feu, which has now been reorganized as the Social Party (TIME, March 29).

Referring to 1929, the year in which he first became Premier, Tardieu I’Américain testified: “At that time I had to deal with powerful forces for disorder and I though it was well to oppose them with forces of order. I had to meet action by some 400,000 or 500,000 Communists, and I thought the Croix de Feu was an interesting attempt to link the War generation with the generations of the future. I got very good service from the Croix de Feu. They kept order when and where I asked it.”

The French and most other European Governments have “secret funds” which it is perfectly legal for the Premier to expend in absolutely any manner he thinks fit—indeed, no Frenchman would be surprised to learn that plug-uglies of the Left were receiving wads of banknotes from the Popular Front Cabinet today to “keep order”—but that any onetime Premier should so utterly lack discretion as to blurt out brutal facts of this kind and give the politicians’ show away, last week astonished Europe. But there was no outcry that French Democracy should no longer employ “secret funds” since these are considered a necessary weapon always in reserve for quick action against the quick-acting dictators.

The trial at Lyon was a suit in which one of the aristocratic original founders of the Croix de Feu, Duke Joseph Pozzo di Borgo, called M. Tardieu to bear witness that the Duke had spoken truly in making public accusations against Colonel de La Rocque which the colonel described in a speech as “maliciously false.” The Duke took this charge as occasion to sue for slander, and the Lyon court was expected to give judgment next week.

Meanwhile France remembered that after the last Tardieu Cabinet fell (TIME, May 16, 1932), Colonel de La Rocque, who had never liked Tardieu I’Americain although willing to take banknotes where he could find them, referred publicly to the fallen Premier as a “political corpse.” For this M. Tardieu in the witness box took ample revenge last week, although Colonel de La Rocque was there to shout in court: “This is not true! Tardieu lies!”

Apart from this drama of scorn, hatred and revenge, the larger significance of the Lyon trial, knowing French political authorities agreed, is that the French smart money which used to back the Croix de Feu and similar Fascist organizations now considers they have gone sour and that politically the Tardieus, the de La Rocques and the Pozzo di Borgos are “dead men.” The potent backers of Rightist activities in France, argued Paris wiseacres this week, would “never have allowed” the Lyons trial to take place unless its passionate participants were considered of no further use. From this Paris was inclined to argue with French logic that smart money is now beginning to bet on Premier Camille Chautemps and his Popular Front Cabinet which of late have so greatly watered down the so-called French New Deal with their moderate policy called “The Pause” (TIME, Oct. 25).

The Pause is now believed by many to be as complete a halt in radical measures as M. Chautemps can possibly get away with, considering that his coalition includes Socialists and Communists.