The Coming Elections in France

Extract

As the time for the general elections in France at the end of April approaches, the Catholics are once again faced with a situation of real anxiety; and several recent indications of the attitude which they are adopting in regard to the elections deserve close attention. There is no denying the seriousness of the danger to which the Church may be exposed if the elections should produce results at all resembling those of four years ago—when the Bloc National was overthrown and M. Herriot came into office, pledged to revive immediately the old campaign of persecution against the Church. Much has happened in the meantime, and it may be useful to summarise briefly the main factors which have altered the situation.

Four years ago M. Poincaré went to the country after he had successfully carried out the threat of occupying the Ruhr—which other Governments had not dared to enforce, in their efforts to make Germany shoulder the costs of war damage. M. Poincaré put the threat into effect, with the backing of a great majority of the Bloc National Parliament, in much the same spirit in which last year he succeeded in restoring the value of the franc, by strong action and by a bold appeal for patriotic support, when all other politicians had failed to control the situation. But whereas M. Poincare’s efforts to save French credit have for various reasons succeeded, his policy in the Ruhr was disastrous not only to French finance, but to his own political position.