Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-09
Impressive Mystic

In the nrSt week OF his return to
power, General Charles de Gaulle, de-
spite all the airy mysticism that is sup
posed to animate him, has put on per-
Torrance remarkable enough to suggest
that he is truly blessed with touch Of
authentic, own-to-earth political gen.
ius. He has done this, moreover, in a
manner that must confound those crit
les of his, in his own country and abroad,
who have lampooned him as sort Of
bumbling but dangerous egocentric in
tent upon establishing a neo-Fascist
dictatorship that would be catastrophe
not only for France, but for the entire
Western alliance.
Thus, as he begins his second his
toric week in ONCE, Premier de Gaulle
has yet to offer the slightest evidence
that he seeks to use his present extraor-
binary powerS-powers that give him al
most dictatorial authority for the next
six months-to set himself up as new
Bonaparte or a Gallo Hitler or Stain.
Instead, after having received them con-
stitutionally from hopeleSSly divided
National Assembly (now on a long "va-
cation'O, he has left little room for
doubt that he intends to employ those
powers solely and simply to reform and
reinvigorate the French democratic
process, which has just come breathtak-
ingly close to destroying itself through
It's factional excuses and consequent
parliamentary paralysis.
Although he has not precisely de-
fined the kind of reform he has in mind,
Premier de Gaulle has said enough about
the subject to indicate that he will sub
nit to the people of France, in national
referendum next fall, a new constitution
that would do the following, among
other things: (1) Establish governing
system roughly comparable to that Of
the United StateS-a system of checks
and balances, of separate but co-ordi-
nate powers, creating a reasonably
strong executive branch whose existence
from day to day would no longer be at
the mercy Of capricious and splintered
National Assembly. And (2) revise the
present electoral law on proportional
representations baSically foolish and
mischievouS arrangement which has re-
suited in great multiplicity of parties
causing legislative impotence.
Needless to say, if such changes as
these become operative, France will have
q far better opportunity than it has had
under the discredited and politically
bankrupt system of the Fourth Republic
to cope successfully with the immense
problems that now bedevil it. Certainly,
to that extent at least, there can be no
doubt that Premier de Gaulle has offered
his countrymen formula for salvation
that will not initiate against their basic
freedoms. AS for Algeria, the current
news indicates that he and his govern
ment face an enormously difficult chal-
lenge-much more difficult than mere
constitutional reform at home-in trying
to effect the still-vague "reconcilia-
ton, IMMIGRATION" and definitive settle
ment that he has proposed for the ter
ritory'S French settlers and the much
larger Moslem population.
Nevertheless, although the rebel
Nationalist have vowed to fight on for
complete independence, Premier de
Gaulle has achieved a personal triumph
of sorts on his tour of Algeria. He has
done so, wholly apart from his appeal to
the MoSlem masses, by imposing his will
and authority on the French army there
and by exacting, even from the most
dissident French civilian elements, a
pledge of obedience to his orders from
Paris. This part of his performance to
date has been perhaps the most i'm
preSSive. 1t has been compounded Of
political artistry and subtlety of the first
order. If it is mysticism, then it is mysti-
cism of sort that France and the free
world at large have reason to welcome
with ardor.