"Last Experiment"

Work done last week as the new Cabinet of tall, mighty-muscled, 220-lb. Premier Pierre Etienne Flandin got down to business:

P: The Premier faced the Chamber with a crisp, dynamic program speech: "The world is suffering from too much controlled economy....I ask union for action and action in union!...Stability of the franc must be maintained and interest rates lowered....Restricted economic regimes have failed everywhere. France must have organized, controlled and defended Liberty to remedy the evils of unemployment, poor sales and slack business."

P: Communists and Socialists flayed the Premier's program as virtual laissez faire. "Better have President Roosevelt!" shrilled a Pink deputy. "He is not afraid to tackle economic problems for the benefit of the masses!"

P: By the largest majority any French Cabinet has received in years, Premier Flandin was upheld in the Chamber 423-to-118, received a vote of approval by the Senate so overwhelming that it was not even counted. France, as M. Flandin remarked, thus began "the last experiment in parliamentary democracy." If it fails, he warned, the alternative is Dictatorship.

P: Foreign Minister Pierre Laval warned the German Ambassador on Nazi misbehavior in the Saar, signed a trade treaty with the Austrian Minister who chirped. "It will facilitate French imports of Austrian wood."

P: Air Minister General Denain proceeded with drastic plans to revamp the entire fighting service in his charge. By decree of President Lebrun, ex-War Minister Marshal Petain was reinstated, this time permanently, as a member of the Supreme Council of National Defense. "We shall develop our alliances and our friendships," proclaimed Premier Flandin. "We shall strengthen our national defense!"

This staccato tone, appropriate in the youngest Premier France has ever had, galvanized hope that Frenchmen may be able to pull out of depression without going to Fascist, Nazi, Soviet or pinko extremes.

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