Evening star., 1950-06-26
France in q Time of Crisis

Although brought about by disagreement
over relatively minor domestic wage issue, the
fall of the Bidault government in France is full
of depressing international Implications particu-
larly so in view of what is happening in Korea.
The Paris development, it is true has come as
no great surprise, but it nevertheless raises
number of disturbing questions about the ability
of the French to maintain the significant leader
ship they have recently been displaying among
the free nations.
Little more than six weeks ago, through
Foreign Minister Schuman, France-regardleSS
of it's uncertain parliamentary Situation-came
forward with its revolutionary proposal for a
supranatonal merger of the coal and steel indus
tries of Western Europe, including Britain In
taking that initiative, it returned to its tradi-
tional role as of the free worlds key powers,
which, of purse it potentially still is, despite
the terrible effects of it's defeat in the Second
World War. Potentialities, however, are not the
same as actualities, and the actuality of the
Bidault governments collapse emphasizes the
fact that the French-wth their multiplicity
of parties ranging from the Gaullists on the
extreme right to the Communists on the extreme
left-continue to suffer from a basic political
instability that undercuts their effort to lead
Thus, although the six-nation Paris talks
on the Schuman Plan will almost certainly be
resumed when the present recess ends on July
Italy and the BeneluX countries tnot to mention
aloof Brittany are bound to have new doubts in
their minds about going along with country
whose government cannot be certain of staying
in Office from one month to the next or even
from one week to the next. Of course, since the
French Socialists, who are primarily responsible
for the downfall of the Bidault cabinet, are in
favor of the coal-and-steel pool such doubts may
be exaggerated, but they exist nonetheless, and
they must be reckoned with.
This situation continuing rise and fall
of cabinets in Paris-self- evidently operates
against the best interests not merely of France
but of the free world as whole. For in these
highly dangerous days, made especially explosive
now by the ominous possibilities implicit in the
Kremlins support of its puppets criminal war
on Southern Korea, few things could be more
important or more needed than a stable French
governments government firmly established
ong-lived full of vigor and capable of acting
with an authority and continuity immune to
the capricious upSetS of party politics Needless
to say, this is a matter that affects not simply
the future prospects of the Schuman Plan but
the immediate safety of Western Europe and
every non-Soviet land
In recent years. reviving from it's awful COL
lapse in 1910, France has staged remarkable
economic recovery and demonstrated-at least
in potential sense-its capacity to recapture it's
historic place of greatness and power among
nations of free men. But what it still lacks what
1t must somehow attain-perhaps by means of
drastic constitutional reforms stability of
government. Until it has that, neither its own
people nor the people of Western Europe in
general can be reasonably sure of how best to
move in this time of crisis.