# The New York Times/1929/10/24/Difficult to Find a French Premier

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DIFFICULT TO FIND A FRENCH PREMIER
Doumergue Consults Political Chiefs, but No Solution Is Likely This Week.
BRIAND'S FALL REGRETTED
Even Those Who Ousted Him Fear They Made Mistake—Result of Radicals' Meeting Awaited.
By P. J. PHILIP.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
PARIS, Oct. 23.—It will take until next week at least, it is expected, to settle the question of who is to succeed Aristide Briand as Premier of France. President Doumergue has begun the work of consulting the presidents of the Senate and Chamber and the leaders of all political groups in an attempt to find an indication of how the new government might be constituted with some prospect of durability.
But even in this country, where the destruction of Cabinets and their replacement by others has been of common occurrence in the past fifty years, there seldom has been a situation which was as confused as the present. Those who defeated M. Briand's Government yesterday were not by any means a unit.
Forty members of the Right parties joined forces with the Radicals, Socialists and Communists in voting for the fixing of a definite date for discussion of The Hague agreements, They did so because they disapproved The Hague policy while the others yoted against the government because, while they approved The Hague policy, they opposed the government's financial program and especially because they disliked M. Briand's associates in the Cabinet.
May Await Radicals' Stand.
But whether President Doumergue will ask some prominent Right Centre man like André Tardieu to form a new Ministry or whether he will appeal to the Left is still uncertain. Probably he will wait until after the Radical-Socialist congress which begins at Rheims tomorrow. There some indication will be given as to whether the Radicals will consent to work with the Centrists of the Tardieu kind or prefer to take office with the support of the Socialists, who still insist on refusing to join any government not of their making. It is suggested that M. Briand himself may be asked, as a last resort, to re-form his Cabinet so as to include the Left. That course, however, would be distasteful to M. Briand, and though his health has been well maintained, he does not feel he is strong enough to assume the double role of Premier and Foreign Minister in a year so charged with foreign negotiations as 1929 will be.
The most likely course for the President is to ask the Radicals to try to form a Ministry, and if they refuse, or fail, he would turn to the Right, probably asking M. Tardieu or Henri Chéron to lead the government. In neither case would the new government be likely to last more than a few months.
The present Chamber is too equally divided. For instance, the government was defeated yesterday by eleven votes, exactly the same number as the Communist Deputies, who all voted against M. Briand. Twelve Deputies were absent and thirty-one abstained from voting. If there is any real majority it lies slightly to the Right, but a Right government would have to practice what is known as the Left foreign policy to receive support from the centre.
Regret Defeating Briand.
In the Chamber corridors today expressions of regret were heard on all sides because of yesterday's action. Even those who brought about M. Briand's defeat seem now to regard the paradoxical association of the Socialists with Louis Marin and George Mandel in the government's defeat as a lamentable mistake. Many believe that a period of quick changes in governments has again begun, in which Cabinet after Cabinet will fall until M. Briand or Raymond Poincaré comes back. It is suggested that the only really satisfactory way out of the present and probable future confusion will be the dissolution of Parliament and a new election.
All Deputies except those on the Extreme Right believe that, whatever government takes office, its policy both with regard to The Hague settlements and the Young plan must remain as M. Briand established it. There may be a difference, however, in the French attitude toward the London naval conference.
While M. Briand in his usual prudent manner was preparing a program which would be at the same time contributory to the general scheme of naval limitation and protective of France's interests, it is feared that if the government is formed to the Right the balance will not be held so evenly and the London negotiations may be made more difficult. That event, however, is three months distant and, many changes may be expected to take place in the government's situation before then.