Evening star., 1947-10-20
BY the Associated Press

PARIS, Oct. 2O.-Candidates
nominated by Gen. Charles de
Gaulle's 6-month-old Rally of
the French People (RPFD we're
leading in 20 out of 81 major
municipalities today as returns
from yesterdays balloting rolled
in from all over France.
Gen. de Gaulle's party held a
substantial lead over all other par
ties. including the Communists, in
the early returns.
There's no doubt about it, De
Gaulle has won," said Maurice
Schuman, parliamentary leader OF
the Popular Republican Movement
(MRP), which lost ground heavily
in yesterdays voting. Gen. de
Gaulle's RPF. although leading the
Communists. did not appear to have
dented Communist voting strength
in any substantial amount.
Rally Gets About 40%.
Running on an Communist
platform, and competing in a
French election for the first time,
RPF was averaging between SO
and 40 per cent Of the total vote,
as against 30 per cent for the Com
munists, 19 per cent for the So
cialists and less than 10 per cent
for MRP.
In the last municipal elections,
MRP fought it out with the Com
munists.
The eight large communities
where this issue remained in doubt
were Toulon, Rennes, Besancon.
Beauyais, Grenoble, Nancy, Lille
and Anglers.
The 20 communities where Gen.
De Gaule's men were running far
ahead were Paris, Algiers, Bordeaux,
Troyes, Nevers, Melun, Mulhouse,
Colmar, Lyon, Montbeliard, Pom
tarlier, Lorient, La Rochelle, Biar-
ritz, Bayonne st. Malo, Marseille,
Annecy, Nantes, Versailles, Epinal,
Strasbourg, Nantes Sur Seine, st.
Raphael, Alencon, Verdun, Rouen,
Metz and Nice.
25,000,000 Votes Cast.
Yesterdays balloting was held to
choose municipal councils in $4,000
French localities. An estimated
25,000,000 votes were cast.
A tabulation of the first 3,618,266
votes counted showed:
RPF-1, ,388,7s4 or 1874 per cent of
the total.
Communists-1,1 ,1oS,s4s, so.e5 per
cent.
Socialists ,457, 1875 per cent.
Popular republican movement
(MRP)-337, 500, or 9.8 per cent.
These figures indicated that the
strength of the RPF was coming
mainly from previous adherents to
the MRP, which also is anti-Com-
munist, and to a lesser extent from
the Socialists. Foreign Minister
Georges Bidault's MRP ballot per-
centage, in the early returns. was
down IA per cent from what it
polled in the last municipal elec-
tions.
Comeback for De Gaulle.
IN any event, these early returns
apparently meant that Gen. De
Gaulle, who has been something of
a political mystery man since he
quit as head of the provisional gov
ernment in January, ,1946, had
made a real political comeback.
AS one token of this comeback,
he was elected mayor of the village
of Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises, pol
ling 112 out of 168 votes, even though
he was not a candidate and his
name was not on the ballot.
Pierre de Gaulle, the generals S
brother was elected to the munich
pal council in Paris and Is slated
to be mayor. The RPF was winning
about so per cent of the vote in
Paris. The generals brother-in-
law, Jacques Vendroux, was named
to the council in Calais.
Premier Paul Ramadier, Social
ist. was reelected mayor of Decaze-
Vile, a village in Central France,
although his party was running
third.
Despite the lack of transportation
(See FRENCH, Page A-4.)