FRANCE: Punctured

Eight months ago, Ramsay MacDonald with a woefully weak government behind him became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Concentrating at once on his foreign policy a series of successful foreign conferences (the Young Plan, The Hague, the visit to Washington) improved British prestige abroad, immeasurably increased his own position at home.

Three months ago kinetic André Tardieu, also with a woefully weak government* became Prime Minister of France. The MacDonald strategy seemed to him excellent, he too concentrated on foreign affairs. Hectically he dashed back and forth to Geneva, to The Hague, to London but though he nearly wrecked the Naval Conference last week in his desire to show the world the might of France, results at home were less satisfactory. Last week ill with laryngitis, he returned to Paris in an attempt to cope with the rising opposition of radicals, socialists.

Ordered to bed by his doctors he was unable to lead the fight in person. Pudgy André Cheron, France’s chin-whiskered Minister of Finance took orders from his chief by telephone, directed the government’s defense. In the Chamber of Deputies, three times the Tardieu-Cheron forces beat off the opposition. The deputies prepared to vote on a measure to reduce the income tax for married women. On the rostrum Pudgy Minister Cheron raised his hand:

“I am making it a question of confidence with the full approval of my chief, Prime Minister Tardieu.”

The Chamber voted. The Government was defeated, 286 to 281. Twenty-two crestfallen ministers and undersecretaries of state left the chamber to gather round the bedstead of laryngetic André Tardieu, who vainly begged his doctor’s permission to dress, deliver his resignation to President Doumergue in person. Reporters waylaid bleary-eyed Aristide Briand, asked if he would attempt to form another government. He shook his head:

“It would be my thirteenth cabinet. C’est fou!”

On the steps of the Chamber of Deputies Pudgy M. Cheron explained why he had put the government to a test vote :

“I have accomplished my duty to the end. We could not fight the opposition on each and every article of the budget and deliver up the country to demagogery. There was an abscess, and it had to be punctured.”

*Nine of his cabinet ministers were hold overs from the admittedly fragile “vacation government” of Aristide Briand.