1. The Gaullist-Communist Deadlock

...Fear of laisser-faire and of planning, of inflation and of delation, ot foreigners and of underpopuls-tion, of Empire-mindedness and of Empire disintegration...

...and that whatever the regime and whatever the Government, these fundamental facts will continue to dominate the French scene at home and French policy abroad...

...PeRHAPS this strange situation csn be better grasped by the use of an even stranger psrallel...

...For the Kiionm-tang dictateorthip, tempered at it is by recent "liberaP' concessions, can no doubt be justified today only as a guarantee against Communist (i.e...

...But Frsnce hss not the-territory of Chins snd then is no room in Frsnce for two ruling parties...

...Chines* Communists on the other hand ran point, to Chungking and attempt to vindicate themselves by branding their enemies as corrupt snd sanguinary reactionaries under whose continued rule China would fall into the clutches of foreign capitalism...

...The continued suppression, in practice, of free speech in s country as politically differentiated as France is only a symptom of the paralysis which is gripping the whole nation as a result of the Gaullist Communist deadlock...

...But the veteran leader of French Socialism preferred to go just so far and no further...

...If is difficult . to guess whst would have happened if Blum had been more explicit...

...In China, Chiang Kai-shek snd the Communists are face to face, bitter enemies yet inexorably bound to each other...

...Thus in some provincial newspapers, and even in Paris dailies of the Radical-Socialist (Herriot) tendency, you will often come across strange sentences, such as these: "We went the Republic," "France needs nothing more than freedom," "There must be an end to arbitrary methods and dictatorship...

...The Gaullists are ha power 'the presence e>f two Communist ministers in ths Government is only incidental) but they are net free to act...

...The Gaullists...

...the rules of the game-are still being observed by tacit mutnal' consent...

...DeGaulle may also ask whether London sftd Washington and the French people themselves would like s country that borders on the North Sea, the Channel, fhe Atlantic and the Mediterranean to be within direct diplomatic reach of the Kremlin...

...He said in effect that true greatness resided not so much in material strength ss in "life, liberty snd the pursuit of happiness...

...And so could the Communists in theirs...

...France's permanent problems—those which existed before the war and which largely explain the catastrophe of 1940—demand both short-range counter-measures and longe-range action...

...Though he went no further, thst prudent remark alone was enough to infuriate the entire Gaullist press...

...ernment in its effort* to reestablish French economy and to bring the country hack to normal life...

...The 74-year old Socialist leader, with a keen sense of the realities of his time snd his country, on that occasion warned his followers of the risks involved in the "politique de grandeur," advocated by the more extreme Gaullists...

...It is a silent, hidden and so far bloodless warfare...

...And the worst fear of all: fear of facing the facts...

...Many -•'•'?<lr would get h^rt...

...that her socisl stability is sapped by the disruptive forces of neo-Bonapartism and neo-Communism...

...He must also have known what he was doing when he chose not to discuss the Stalinist terror in his articles on Socialist-Communist differences...

...Fear of Fascism, Bonapartism, Democracy, Communism...

...The analogy with China, hardly acceptable on the surface, can even be carried a little further...

...HoWEVER personally courageous a writer or a political leader or a trade unionist may be, he cannot and will not, in the France of today, actually call a spade a spade—unless he belongs to or is supported by one of the two ruling fsctions...

...This struggle-to the death is paralysing the country...

...Inn former mainstays of Vichy and the traditional enemies of Communism and til USSR, why he has moved so rautinuliSy in the Held of social and economic reform, snd wily In- occasionally free*-''"' n'Jii and more) contemplates n»''i si ion in a western bice, whose only rb.uitivs, the Communists rlsim 'amnlri b« '<> encircle I be USSR...

...In the same manner it can be claimed that de Gaulle, in response to criticism of his regime, need only point to the yellow-brown house in the heart of the business district of Psris which csrries Comitf Central du Parti Communists Fiancais painted in huge letters over its entire frontage, jostj- like the big brother's hovise in Moscow...

...that her industrial plant is outdated, her agriculture uneconomic, her bureaucracy inefficient...

...the Coat, munist* are there to see that their enemies de net get a free hand...

...general list-lessness: these are the main symptoms of the palsy as manifested in the economic field...

...Where the law does not actually deny citizens the privilege of free speech, I rite are times when independent voices can make themselves heard, when nonconformist thought can publicly be expressed...

...If they could agree to share power, they could rule the country without difficulty and perhaps even efficiently...

...that her military strength is greet neither absolutely nor relatively...

...Thus the leaders of the country's two great pre-war parties, the right-of-center Radical-Socialists and the left-of-center Socialists, both feel thst in the Frsnce of today, one yesr after liberation, the time for plain speech has not yet come...

...Blum wss reminded of his psst "errors" snd urged to exercise better judgment with regsrd to the "new" Frsnce...

...Thus a tiny Socialist sheet like hibertis will remind its readers thst there used to be a consistently internationalist tradition in the labor movement and propose "European Federal Union NOW," while Leon Blum in Le Papula ire will frankly state that Soviet foreign policy may not always necessarily serve the interests of France and of mankind...

...This broad picture does not reflect the present situation, in France in every detail...

...and the same general inertia and apatehy that mark economic life prevail in political circles...

...hat her population is small and demographically aged...

...But they cannot agree...

...Frenchmen who know the facts and accept them for what they are...

...Yet the deadlock between Chungking snd Yenan may be less disastrous to the country as a whole than the Gaulliet-Stalinist struggle is to Frsnce, if only because Chins is so huge...

...Soviet) domination of the whole country...

...And he must have had good reasons...

...will tell yon that...

...Nowhere can you find firm ground in a country that is tormented by fear: fear of-what may come from abroad and fear of what may develop at home...

...thst the Empire is endangered not so much by outside pressure as by Interna] factors, Moslem and Asia trie nationalism, new trade channels, inadequate administration...

...if they had a free hand, could do I he job in their own way...

...a.: hope of political freedom mitht vanish for a generation, hot the nation as a whole would probably support the Got...

...France ia no longer a first-rate industrial, commercial and financial power, the center of Europe and the universe...

...deadlock) with the consequent cruel inequalities in the distribution of foodstuff's and other necessities...

...There are exceptions, of course...

...But the French Communists will ask why de Ganile attempt* to rule rather than to govern, why he often ignores his ministers snd works through private channels of his own,, why he trusts only his ewn men fiont London* nnid Algiers rather than t bosh who never left the' country, why he still operates a secret service whose general objectives have never been publicly defined, why he is supported by big business, the Army and the Chu ch...

...and so little head way Is being made by either side that there are frequent pauses and even truces such ss csn be observed on any military front-But of the true nature of the struggle there csn be little doubt: it is a "lutte a •noil...

...F RENCH recovery, economic, political and social, is being blocked by the relentless War of position that is rsging between Gaullists end Communists throughout the nation...

...Political life is equally inhibited: the resistance movements and the parties, old and new, are torn between the two opposing factions, bereft of sny independent strength snd will, reduced to purely electoral functions snd smbitions...

...Since Edouard flerriot's return to Frsnce, the former President of the Chamber of Deputies has been on the whole equally cautious...

...The Communists are not in control of the central administration and the essential machinery of Gevernme t, and neither are they free to act, because th* GanllisU see to it that they doa't In a country that was already beset by difficult ien before the wsr, and that • haa suffered so terribly eince, hsrdly anything is being done to solve the most pressing problems because neither •f the two ruling parties will allow th* other to act...

...ii.'e pmces...

...freedom of speech snd freedom of Uie press remsin strictly limited in scope (and to a freeborn America, practically non-existent) as long ss haloes continue to surround the Chief of State, President of the Government, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, snd First Resister of Frsnce, to wit, General Charles da Gaulle, as well as the French Communist Party—the Party of the Martyrs, the Party of National Renaissance, Unity and Freedom, to wit...

...All political debate, all discussion and criticism, all true initiative and purposeful sction sre limited in practice to the privileged groups who enjoy the support of one of the two dominant factions...

...Lack of confidence in the business world: uncertainty in the ranks of labor...

...inflation (not caused but maintained by the politics...

...However, neither of the two nominating groups has a free hand...

...For better or for worse, France would be active again: the wheels would begin to turn...

...An organized Government—practically any organized Government- could provide some solutions and get somethi.ig Hone toward the rehabilitation of the country...

...They can only agree to disagree, and perhspa work out another temporary compromise...

...Thus Chiang and his rivsls for power "justify" each other's existence...

...Even s msn of suthority such ss Leon Blum could not and would not, in the course of his successful campaign against Sorialist Communist fusion, publicly denounce the home policy of Stslin's GPU regime...

...Fear of Germany, England, Italy, of the United States, of Russia...

...nor would he go further than hint at the Bonapartist danger in that memorable first speech after his return from Germany...

...Thus a daily like Combat, under the able intellectual leadership of the writer Albert Camus, will occasionally forget its Gaul list and "Resistance" affiliations to come out with a series of srtioles criticizing the official policy in Algeria, where Arab Nationalist-inspired disorders were recently put down by force, nr with an editorial questioning the advisability of putteing Petain to death...