WHICH WAY FRANCE To DARSIE GILLIE AND THOMAS CADETT ACKNOWLEDGMENT A large number of passages in this book have been taken from the Authors dispatches and articles in the Manchester Guardian. He is greatly indebted to the Editor for his kind permission to reprint them here. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENT - 7 PREFACE - ...... 15 I NON-STOP 1919-32 21 Armistice Day. Clemenceau. Germany Shall Pay. Millerand. Bolshevik Menace. Poincarl and the Ruhr. Left Election Victory of 1924. Financial Crisis of 1924-26. Herriot. Failure of Geneva Protocol. Locarno the next best thing. Poincare saves the franc. Briands peace policy. Three years of prosperity. End of Poincare . Tardieu and Laval. Decline of Briand. A great Franco-German Riddle. Briands death. Tardieu preaching bonne kumeur. II THE ABORTIVE FRONT POPULAIRE OF 1932 - 39 The Left Election Victory of 1 93 2. The Cahiers Huyghens. Conservative Radicals and uncompromising Socialists. The Herriot Cabinet. Lausanne. American War Debts. 1933 Illusion of French Stability. Fall of Daladier Gov ernment. End of 1933 the Great Crisis of Parliamentary Government. III THE SIXTH OF FEBRUARY AND AFTER 47 The Stavisky Bombshell. Anti-Parliamentary Press Cam paign. Chautemps braves the storm. Royalist riots. Fall of Chautemps Government. Daladier Government. Chiappe. 6th of February. A Fascist plot Support of public opinion. Daladier s resignation. February 7 A night of anarchy. The working class reacts. Com munist riot of February 9. Socialist-Communist relations. The General Strike of February 12. Doumergue. IV PARLIAMENT BULLIED BY THE STREET - THE CRODC DE FEU - -----64 The Doumergue Cabinet. Chantage de la Rue The Prince Affair. Colonel de la Rocque. The success of the Croix de Feu. Their mystique. Their strange rela tions with Doumergue. V THE DOUMERGUE-TARDIEU PLOT AGAINST THE REPUBLIC 75 Doumergue s - wireless antics. His attacks on the Social ists and Communists. Devaluation scare. His Consti tutional proposal. The Premiers prerogatives. M. 9 1 CONTENTS CO71 1171UCU, CHAPTER PAGE Doumergue has revised the British Constitution. The effect of the Marseilles assassinations. Reshuffle of the Cabinet. Laval becomes Foreign Minister. Blums slashing attack on Doumergue s reforms. Analogy with MacMahon. The Radical Congress. Herriots pledge. Intimidation of Parliament. Doumergues Bluff called. Resignation of his Cabinet. A final threat. Armistice Day 1934. Doumergue proclaimed Fascist leader. Back to Tournefeuille. A first victory over Fascism. VI ENTER LAVAL 93 Back to more normal parliamentary Government. The Flandin Cabinet. M. Flandin. His economic theories. Laval. His policy compared with Barthous. First meeting with Laval. Personal peculiarities. His career. League and Saar. The International Force. Flirting with -Ribbentrop. VII THE SAAR INTERLUDE - - - - - 106 VIII BUILDING ON SAND - - - - - 123 Laval a dustbin of conflicting desires. His triumphant journey to Rome. How he was bamboozled by Mussolini. Free hand in Abyssinia The Anglo-French London Communique. The French Army. Lean recruiting years. France doubles term of military service. Blums attack. A bos les deux ans. Hitlers reply Conscription in Germany. Simon in Berlin. A comic conference. EXTRACTS FROM A STREGA DIARY. Result of Stresa. Laval signs Franco-Soviet Pact. IX CHAMBER VERSUS BANK OF FRANCE THE DOUBLE CABINET CRISIS OF MAY-JUNE 1935 142 Conflict between Flandin and Bank of France. Financial panic. Flandin s surrender. Advocates of devaluation. Reynaud, Mickey Mouse of the Chamber. The comic one day cabinet of M. Fernand Bouisson. What sort of per son he was. Two bald heads. Caillauxs grand entry. And quick exit. The Caillaux legend. Fall of Bouisson Government. Bank of France continues resistance. Laval forms new cabinet. Deflation. Government servants riots. X THE RISE OF THE FRONT POPULAIRE - - 153 After February 6. United Front of August 1934. Socialist and Communist manoeuvring. The Symbolic Election of M...