Evening star., 1928-12-23
'TR|V|AL|T|ES HURT
FRENCH PROGRESS.
Achievements for Year Are
Many, but Uncertainty
Looms as 1929 DaWns.
BY GERVILLE REACHE.

BY Gable to The Star.
PARIS, December 22.--France ends
the year on note of uneasiness which
this correspondent, as an impartial
observer, is compelled to dwell upon
An uncertain period looms ahead as
1929 dawns>
Sometimes great achievements OF
governments are wiped out by trivial
happenings.
In foreign affairs, France has held
firmly to peaceful ideals In inter
national finance she cannot be ac-
cused of merely marking time. She
wants reparations settled. She will
ratify her debts and meanwhile is pay.
ing regularly. She will make conces-
sions to Germany in the evacuation
of the Rhineland against reasonable
guarantees.
BRAND Gains Credit.
Even the Franco British naval agree
ment, after causing some furry, mas
proved to be flash in the pan. Finally
Foreign Minister BRAND, though criti-
cized for boldly intervening in the Bo-
livian -Paraguayan imbroglio, has emerg-
ed with credit and brought credit to
the League of Nations.
In internal affairs, France has settled
the money problem fairly satisfactorily
and balanced the budget without crush
ing national economy, despite the tre-
mendouS tax burdens imposed.
So much on the credit side, against
which can be placed only a few scan
dals and few blunders.
Unquestionably the new Poincare
cabinet is weaker than the one preced-
inc, on account of the lack of strong
radical representation. To stop this
Gan Premier Poincare took as the rep
resentative of the Left man without
political value, NJ Hennessey, who hao
become Ambassador to Berne through
his great wealth and the influence OF
two radical papers which he subsidized
This clumsy choice of minister OF
agriculture has brought down on M
Poincare's head all of the thunderboltS
of the opposition. which was quick tc
discover such weak point.
Royalists Begin Agitation.
On the one hand the Royalists have
begun agitation in the streets and ever
went so far as to smash windows in M
Hennessey's antechamber. ConserVa-
tive papers are carrying on campaign
against him, with bitingly satirical car
toons. in which M. Hennessey's brandy
plays a large part On the other hanc
the radical organs do not support
backslider who accepted a CABINET pos
against his party's decision.
What particularly aggravates M Hen
nesseys case is the fact that one OF his
newspapers, LIE Quotidien, farmed ou'
its financial advertising to the Gazettt
du Franc, which was recently revealed
as a vast swindle NJ HennesSey'S min
isterial career seems destined to be brie
and this will force M. Poincare again
to reform his cabinet and probably
weaken it still further.
Premier Poincare is also unpopular or
account of his attitude concerning ar
increase in the Deputies and Senators
so-called indemnities, which replac'
salaries.
The nation should not be judged
by these relatively trivial matters
Even the arrest last week OF a former
finance minister who issued bad checks
after being ruined by a woman, shows
that the present republican regime 1:
not afraid to wash its Soiled linen pub.
licly. But unfortunately such scandal:
do weaken the executive power ir
France even when the government Is
perfectly honest and capable as 1t L
today. They weaken republican insti-
.tutions because the ardent republicans
who put their money into lie Quotidier
are now ruined and disillusioned and
tend to join the extremists, whether
royaliStS or communists.
And so France ct the end of l92e
Is in great uncertainty as to what the
next few months will bring forth.
(Copyright, 1929