Evening star., 1924-07-13
HERRIOT'S TENURE HANGS
ON WEDNESDAYS PARLEY
French Parliament Gives Premier Three
Sharp Warnings Not to Yield
Too Much in London.
BY FRANK HI. sIMONDS.
NHREE sharp rebuffs admins
tered to Premier Harriet in

tered to Premier Harriet in
rapid and regular succession
the last in a sense the most
significant of all, must serve as q
warning to the outside world that the
liberal mood in France has about
reached its limit and for the present
everything depends not merely upon
Herriot's success in the forthcoming
London conference. at which America
= will be present, but quite as much
upon the immediate revelations OF
British purpose.
OF the three checks to Herriot, the
FIRST was the defeat of his candidate
F2u1 Painleve, for president of the
fspubffc by Doumergue, the second
was the rejection of this candidate
Tor president Of the Senate to sue
<eed Doumergue, De Salves. a Poin-
care lieutenant defeating Bienvenu
Martin But it is the third and last
of2 these incidents" which must
cause most reflection. This was the
ja1ecdon Of Marginot to head the wal
eommission OF the French parliament
significance Of Maginot.
After all Doumergue was a liberal
r moro moderate than Herriot DE-
Setvas, II a follower Of Poincare, was
only one of several 1ieutenants, but
aIaginot was easily the second man
IN the Poineare cabinet. indeed the
only man of prominence Poincare re-
tanned when he made over his cabinet
after the crisis of the first day OF
April And in addition, Maginot is
known in France both as the man OF
the Ruhr" and the champion of the
maintenance of the French army at
its present strength.
Before his election Maginot openly
locked horns with Herriot in debate
in the chamber, boldly challenging
that portion of the new ministry
program which expressly promised
the further reduction of the strength
of the French army. Maginot square
" announced such a project to be
not alone dangerous, but unpatriotic
and close upon his declaration ne
has been chosen, instead of follower
of Herriot, to head the war commits
sion.
If this selection means anything 1t
means that the French chamber
despite the triumph of the Left in
the last election, is by no means
ready to go to extreme limits in a
program of disarmament; indeed.
it would seem to mean that it is the
settled conviction of the French Par
lament that the moment has now
come for France to rest on her oars
and see just what is to be the prac-
tical effect of her recent concessions
to world opinion and to the general
cause of appeasement.
Army Reduced One-HaIf.
Since the close of the war the
French army has been reduced one
half-that is, the part of the army
which is made up from the annual
contingents of recruits. This result
has been achieved automatically by
the reduction of the period of service
with the colors from three TO one
and half years. In his announce
ment of his Legislative program Her
, riot had pledged himself to further
reduction. which had been estima ted
ice of a year and perhaps a drop
even to nine months.
Roughly speaking, the annual class
that is, the recruits called up each
year for military Observation-Disclosures
something more than 100000. Thus
the conscript army of France is now,
in round numbers, 100000. In addi-
ic
nent stiffening represented by 10000
re-enlisted and thus professional SOL
diers, corresponding to our own and
the British regulars, although, of
course, they are merged with the
rest of the force. But, so far as I
can ascertain, the French have not
yet been able to recruit their 100 900
to full strength
In any event, the regular army of
France, outside of the colonial con-
tfngents, numbers around 400, 900
under the new establishment, which
has been adopted since the war and
was, I think. actually arranged for
by the legislation passed during the
session of 1922, when there was a
long fight over the question of a one
year or eighteen month service
period In the end the twelve month
period was rejected, not because
there was much doubt as to the ade-
quacy of a year as a period of train
ing, but because of the belief Of the
majority that in the situation of Eu-
rope which then existed France need
ed an army of the size the eighteen
month service period would insure.
New Cut Gives Problem.
The reduction Of the French army,
then, from the pre-war strength Of
1914 falls little short of so per cent.
And this reduction has naturally en-
tailed a thorough remodeling Of the
whole force, reduction in the number
Of divisions, readjustment Of the To-
cation of the troops as between the
several branches of the service; and
this task, really enormous, has hardly
been completed Therefore a second
readjustment, which called for an
other cut, this time of third at
least, would present very serious
problem
In addition, one has to take into
account tho matter Of the Ruhr and
Rhineland occupation. 1t is true that
Herr1ot has announced that he will
evacuate the Rhine industrial area
when the Germans have given the
necessary proofs of good faith in the
matter of the acceptance of the
Dawes report. Assuming that the
Germans may in the end give these
proofs, that Is still for the future.
oJao irfaraSfinp proh1onnS