Evening star., 1946-01-26
Says De GouIIe Forces
His Opponents Hand
Writer Thinks General Banks
On Reaction in His Favor
BY Perfinax.

On Reaction IN His Favor
By Peytinaa.
LONDON, Jan. 26 CBy Radio) AT the
end of last week I had an opportunity to
ascertain directly the views held by Gen.
Charles De Gaulle on the present state
of French affairs. Certainly the letter
which De Gaulle sent, last Sunday, to
the President of the Constituent Assem-
ly IN order to acquaint him with De
Gaulle's resolve to relinquish the presi-
dency of the Provisional Government
of the French Republic does not tally
even remotely with what I had heard.
OF this am convinced: De GaulIe
did not give up his post becapsS, as
expressed in his letter, he thought his
task had been accomplished or was
about to be accomplished. He decided
to 60 because he had reached the con-
clusion that the wrangles between poll
tical parties and factions In France
made it impossible for him to perform
his governmental function in an effici-
ent manner. To the foregoing sentence
I had to listen more than once and
doubtless the construction to be placed
upon it is as follows:
The three political parties which, in
wake Of the October elections, agreed
to be associated in the cabinet, although
they pay lip service to National Union,
are really at loggerheads. They do not
fulfill their ministerial trust with any
single purpose. Above all, they think
of the general election which is bound
to come four months from now. Con-
tinuously they are maneuvering for
position and they lose sight of the ma
tional interest.
Criticized Own Officials.
That De Gaulle, whenever visitors
found him ready to discourse on public
affairs last week, did not spare his own
ministers and the parties behind those
ministers, cannot be seriously disputed
1t is not to be wondered at, after all, that
he should have formed such an unfavor-
able opinion of current politics and that
this weighed on his mind to the point
of making his resignation from office
appear convenient way of escape.
A spectator at several cabinet meet
ings which took place on De Gaulle's
return from his recent short holiday in
the south told me that clashes and
counter clashes between Communists,
Socialists. and Popular Republican
ministers ended in abject confusion
While the leader had been away those
men, confronted by the crisis in the
supplies service, had not been able to
agree on anything. 1t had not been
within their intelligence to evolve a
shadow of a remedy for the meat short
age which keeps the French people in
state of evaporation.
The remark was made by one of the
ministers that there was no useful pur-
pose to be served by holding ministerial
deliberations in the absence of the gen.
eral. But now the general was in the
chair again and it was amply demon
strated that he alone was in position, at
the end of protracted dispute in the
council room, to impose the conclusion
which all present could feign to approve.
But afterward that conclusion was not
were the political scenes which i'm
pressed De Gaulle and perhaps impelled
him to give up his post.
Turning the Tables.
But in what spirit did he take the
fatal step last Sunday? Was it that
he did not believe he could contribute
anything more to Frances salvation?
Or had he come to think that he must
seize the occasion to turn the tables
against his political opponents who were
losing in popularity and to provoke re-
action in his favor, though, in resigning,
he could do nothing better than leave
free hand and a free field to the So
cialists and Communists?
Personally am inclined to credit De
Gaulle with the kind of calculation ex-
pressed in the second question. His
move OF Sunday cannot be described as
tactical in the sense that he really in
tends to go and will not easily agree to
continue at the head of the government,
But his letter deserves to be called grand
strategy insofar as the writer has
banked upon revulsion of public feel
ing in his favor-a revulsion which. as
he sees it. may mature after a few
months.
In conclusion I should add this: De
Gaulle probably persuaded himself that
the time had come for him to take a
bold initiative because it had begun to
dawn upon him that, by making capital
OF government shortcomings in the
domain of public finance and public
economy, his enemies may have a
chance to defeat him in the forthcom-
ing electoral struggle. Up until very
recent date his plan was to work out a
constitution by borrowing very largely
from the American pattern and to ask
the Constituent Assembly and, later, the
electorate, to choose between that prod
uct OF his ingenuity and a strange
scheme which is expected to come from
the constitutional committee in As
sembly.
The lmpatlence of growing section
OF the French public. with many of the
failures noticeable in the ministerial de.
partments of finance, national economy
and supplies have induced De Gaulle to
change his course. The pity is that he
did not draft his letter of resignation in
more felicitous terms The French peo-
pie have become used to expecting-from
him-more candid language than was
used.
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