| Show Still Too Many Rats Gnawing Away I The long awaited terl French elections to choose a R. new Assembly of oC members were held Sunday Sunday and and it appears to be bemore bemore bemore more than anything else a victory for General Charles De rightist party known as the Rally of the French People De party part will have the strongest single party bloc in the new parliament parliament-at at least seats The motley coalition of center parties is Js expected to retain control of the gov gov- It Jt is labeled a middle the middle the of-the- road grouping but it actually gathers together in a hodge bodge podge alliance parties of all kinds from those which are a as rightist as the De party to those which are almost as leftist as the Communists This coalition at last count had seats eats With needed for a majority Jt it is doubtful the coalition will have firm control but observers believe they willet will get et enough support elsewhere perhaps even from the De to form a government Unfortunately as has proved the case no ao frequently in French political history this is likely to be a very unstable government government gov gov- which will fall on the slightest pretext or at the whim of some fickle political leader From that standpoint there does not seem too much gain for France or the free world from front this I election Nor is it as much of 01 a loss for the Communists as it seems to be on the surface True the Communists lost strength in the Assembly Instead of the deputies they had in the last Assembly the biggest single party I representation they will have only just over ranking second to the De group in numbers The Communists have lost more in Assembly strength than they have in popular strength The French devised a new electoral system expressly designed designed designed de de- de- de signed to handicap the Communists Actually although they will have fewer seats in the Assembly the Communists polled nearly a million more votes than the De party They still have havethe havethe havethe the allegiance of nearly 25 per cent of f the French voters The situation is much the same as that in Italy as revealed by recent local Italian elections These elections were widely hailed as a victory for the antiCommunists antiCommunists antiCommunists anti- anti Communists because the Reds were thrown out of or control in m many ny cities particularly in the industrial north But sober second looks revealed that this victory was attained only because the Communist anti-Communist parties staged a united campaign Actually as the London Spectator commented the Communist vote was higher than at the national elections elections elections elec elec- of 1948 and the Christian Democratic Democratic Demo Demo- cratic party of Signor Signer de Gasperi Italian premier lost votes everywhere In th the industrialized north d despite spile the fact the Reds lost control of local governments in most cases they received 35 per cent of the voles votes and in Sicily they had 30 per cent Plainly no country can be a bulwark for forestern western estern ideals of freedom and justice when from a fourth to more than a third i of the people give either active e or passive support to the Communists Under such conditions there there- are just too many rats gnawing away at the foundations of free government go too m many ny potential traitors ready to knife the country in the back in a showdown We Ve can be glad that the Communists did not do any better in France or in Italy but no one in the west can be too happy over a situation which sees these two key European nations shot through and through with the deadly virus of communism |
