The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-11-17


 Socialists and Catholic Movement Republican Populaire met this morning but disbanded without reaching an agreement.
 Maurice Schumann, MPR repre- sentative, told the others that his party would not vote for any other chief of government than DeGaulle. Another MPR leader, Francisque Gay, said his party stood firm in support of the three-party coalition headed by DeGaulle.
 Socialists On Fence
 Vincent Auriol said the Socialists would vote only for a candidate &C., cepted by both the MPR and Com munists.
 Political observers had little doubt that the Communists had decided to go all out for a left wing coali- ton government of Communists, Socialists, and Radical-SocialistS, either with or without DeGaulle.
 Such 8 government would be as- sured of comfortable majority in the assembly. But the Socialists seemed reluctant to make the move which would mean an almost cer- tain clean break with DeGaulle.
 Informed political observers be- Meved the shrewd De Gaulle was banking on his tremendous per- Sonal popularity with the French public to force his political foes into line and restore him to the presi- dency.
 De Gaulle himself made no public comment pending publication of his letter of resignation this morning, but the capital buzzed with rumors of horSe-trading and political deals going on behind the scenese.
 There appeared only two major possibilities if the assembly accepts De Gaulle's resignation:
 l. That the Communists, SO- ctalistS and Radical Socialists might try to drop De Gaulle and form a leftiSt, Communist dom mated cabinet with an assured majority behind them in the as- sembIy.
 3. That the Socialist party might bargain with the Catholic Movement Republican POpulaire for formation of a coalition gOv- ernment headed by De Gaulle.
 All Favor Compromise
 The fact that the leaders of the three parties met only a few hours after De Gaulle's decision to quit was taken as a strong indication that they all favored a compro- mise rather than assume responsi- hility for the present crisis.
 fr sxl lao cooling off period between now and Monday, there seemed little doubt that both De Gaulle and the Com munists would try to maneuver each other into taking the blame in tine eyes of the public.
 The Communists flatly refused to join De Gaulle's proposed cabinet unless they were given one of the three top ministries-foreign af- fairs, war or the interior.
 No agreement emerged from the series of intra-party meetings held last night and early today, and it appeared certain that the Commun- fists had decided to go all-out for a left-wing coalition with the Social ists and radical-SocialistS, with or without De Gaulle.
 etaio
 MRP leaders, on the other hand, asserted they would not vote for any other president but De Gaulle, and the Socialists said they would support only a candidate acceptable to both the Communists and the MRP.
 De Gaulle's letter of resignation was made public by the assembly this morning. In 1t, the general blamed the Communists solely for the crisis and denounced their de- mands for 6 major cabinet post as incompatible with the conditions Of independence, coersion and author ity" which he sought in the new government.