Blood of Blum

On Paris' historic Ile St. Louis in a sumptuous old house crammed with exquisite bibelots and first editions lives millionaire Socialist Leader Leon Blum. Although intellectually cultivated, refined and suave, M. Blum affects a shaggy and haphazard air. He delights to rush among the Paris rabble and deliver mixed Socialist-Communist harangues. He annoys

Rightists to such a point that a Nationalist newspaper once greeted him editorially with "Blum! Blum! Blum! Your name is like the sound of bullets entering a traitor's breast. Blum! Blum! Blum!" Last week the peculiar detestation Leon Blum is capable of arousing nearly cost him his life and sent France careening around a sharp, dangerous political curve. In a car driven by Socialist Deputy Georges Monnet and with Mme Monnet at his side, Socialist Blum edged too close to a Royalist funeral procession. The militant mourners were young, cane-swinging stalwarts of the Action Franchise, supporters of the restoration as King of France of Monseigneur le Due de Guise, an exile in Belgium. The funeral was that of eminent French historian and publicist Jacques Bainville, a Royalist with a scoffing pen so sharp that he had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church, his corpse barred from burial in consecrated ground. The snout of Socialist Monnet's car incensed the mourning Royalists, three of whom, an insurance agent, a chauffeur and an architect, recognized Socialist Blum. The insurance agent shook his fist, the chauffeur spat on the glass window from which peered Leon Blum, and the architect set a glass-smashing example with his cane to other Royalists, who soon broke the car's lamps and windshield.* Someone tore off the rear license plate and dashed it through a window at M. Blum, the splintered glass cutting his neck to the jugular vein. Dragging the Socialist Leader out bleeding and gasping, the young Royalists seemed about to do their worst when four Paris policemen shouldered through the throng to restore order. They carried Leon Blum to the nearby headquarters of the Catholic Women's League, where improvised bandages were wrapped around his neck.

"In Paris anyone who offended respect for the dead as Blum did would have received the same treatment!" was the Royalist explanation. Nevertheless the life of Premier Albert Sarraut's Cabinet depends on its support in the Chamber by the Socialist Party led by Leon Blum. Almost before Blum's blood clotted on his bandages, Leftist leaders were screaming over every wire leading to the Premier's office demands that the Government smash all Royalist organizations by decree and arrest the Royalist Leaders Leon Daudet and Charles Maurras, editors of L' Action Francaise. When the Chamber convened, Socialist and Communist Deputies made pandemonium. Flustered Premier Sarraut hastily declared that the Cabinet would meet in emergency session with President Albert Lebrun to issue antiRoyalist decrees. This roused the Socialists and Communists to such a roaring frenzy that the Chamber decided to adjourn for the day -- an event remarkable because the Chamber had been just about to vote on the measure Communists & Socialists most favor, the bill ratifying the Franco-Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty. Meeting with President Lebrun, the Cabinet swiftly decreed dissolution of the Action Franchise League of 70,000 Royalists and its subdivisions, the National Federation of Royalist Students and the National Federation of Camelots du Roi ("King's Henchmen") who number 6,000. Not arrested were Royalist Leaders Daudet and Maurras. Chirped Managing Editor Maurice Pujo of L' Action Francaise: "These measures will only make us Royalists more united than ever. The Government cannot decree out of existence the monarchical idea."

*These minutiae being recorded by an amateur cinema cameraman whose film police confiscated and used to identify the culprits.

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