Evening star., 1934-02-11
FEARS FOES OF FRANCE
WILLMAKEUSE OFUNREST
British Writer Believes Germany Would
Be Leader to Take Advantage
of Weakness.
BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS, X. B. E.

France are the chief guarantees OF
European peace, and that If these
are seriously weakened or overthrown
there are hostile powers, with Ger
many as their leader. who would
make terrible use Of the situation.
It Is still too soon to say this pos
gibility has passed. For the moment
tension has been eased by Dou-
mergue's heroic acceptance, in his
old age, Of national leadership to re-
store order and form a government
. which will create new confidence. But
passions have not been appeased
among the extremists on both sides.
They are dangerous and subversive.
Still more dangerous to the new
government, however are the general
disgust and hatred of the great mass
Of French people for politicians and
q political system which have proved
essentially corrupt and have led
France into a morass of insolvency
and moral disorder.
Face Many Problems.
Will this new national government
be able to pass a budget which does
not put impossible burdens upon a
middle class already strained and re-
sentful because of decreased trade and
increased taxation?
Can Doumergue form government
which will relieve unemployment and
bring back the tourists whose absence
for two years has drained France OF
enormous wealth?
VIII the new government keep
France on the gold standard now
that gold is departing from her vaults
with terrifying rapidity, or will there
be further depreciation of the franc,
with an inevitable rise Of prices in
tolerable to small incomes?
II the so-called national govern
ment fails in any of these problems
which face it Immediately. there will
be no political peace in France.
Extremists on either wing are TAX
ing advantage of this passionate dis
trust and distress in the general body
Of public opinion. Communists and
extreme radicals are out for disorder
at any cost. They are not In neg
hgible numbers.
In all industrial cities and in the
working quarters Of Paris there is and
has been for the last II years very
strong Communist and anarchist ele-
ment. due partly to red propaganda
and more to revolutionary tradition
In France among the lower grades of
labor
Wish to Destroy Capitalism.
They are led and incited by half
baked intellectuals and have a follow
ing Of young hooligans who have no
respect for law and order, but wish
to destroy the whole system Of
capitalism and bourgeoisie. They are
the same type as the mobs who sacked
the Tuileries during the French Revo-
luton and committed the worst
But am convinced that their only
power Is that Of rioting and looting
and bashing the police.
France is essentially bourgeois ma
Hon. It's peasant population will
never tolerate Communism. What
ever happens in France during the
coming weeks, it will not be from the
extreme Left that the nation will get
its inspiration or its future policies.
Unfortunately, however. these Com
nunists and anarchists with their de-
liberate incitement to brutality, which
can be answered only by bloodshed
and street fighting, keep passion at
the boiling point and play into the
hands of the extreme Right. who de-
mand the downfall of the republic
and the restoration of the monarchy.
RovaIists Have Gained.
Under the leadership of Leon Dau-
det and Charles Maurras, the royal
list movement in France has grown
steadily in recent years, especially
among young men of the aristocratic
and upper middle class. The move
nent is partly romantic. partly re-
ligious and partly political. In some
aspects 1t is not unlike the spirit of
italian Fascism, at least in its advo-
cacy of nationaHsm and of the power
of youth to restore the glory of France
by self-imposed discipline and by the
moral dictatorship of the nation. The
weakness of parliamentary govern
nent is the chief butt of the ridicule
and hatred of the royalist movement,
and now after the revolving evidence
Of political corruption it has some
very plausible arguments.
The military caste is undoubtedly
lured by monarchical sentiment,
which Is strongly held not only by
scattered Drained youth, but by the
most serious and idealistic young men,
who are touched by religious emotion.
They see generalization of the politi-
cal machine and moral disorder in
many phases of life. They wish to
bring France back to the Catholic
faith Of a Gallo or national type.
They believe liberal and radical poll
ticians have weakened France in its
defense against Germany and are
ready to weaken it still further by
concessions to the German claims for
rearmament.
The wave Of Fascism among the
worlds youth has not left France un-
touched, although it Is hostile to Ger
man and Italian Fascisn. In France,
as elsewhere, youth is impatient of
older minds, old, discredited politi-
clans, and an old end failing system
Of democratic government. They call
themselves Royalists. They send
messages to a gentleman called the
Due de Guise But in my Judgment
they would be seriously embarrassed
If they found themselves with a king
They prefer royalism without king,
knowing a monarchy would not be
accepted by the people of France and
would be received with ridicule as an
outwon institution of that country.
That at least was the situation dur
ing recent years. 1t may have
changed in the last few weeks.
Sentiment Is Unknown.
No one in France could say defi-
nitely this minute how strong senti-
ment Is toward monarchical ideal.
Doubtless some conversions have been
made I have heard intelligent
Frenchmen argue that it is the only
alternative to complete discredit OF
democracy as 1t works through the
French Chamber They argue also
that a king would give stability to
France and would expel the corrup-
ton which has eaten into the very
Vitsls OF the political machine.