Fourth Republic

For France it was the biggest week since liberation. Abroad, General Charles de Gaulle's Government prepared to assume a full role in world affairs (see above). At home, it took its first firm step toward parliamentary administration.

In the Third Republic's Senate Chamber (a gilded, rococo wing of the Luxembourg Palace) the new Consultative Assembly held its first session. Created in Algiers more than a year ago, the Assembly had been reorganized, its membership upped from 102 to 248. Resistance groups held 148 seats. Third Republic parliamentarians untainted by collaboration 60, overseas delegates 40.

The briefcases on the desks of the Resistance members were new and shiny. The old parliamentarians' briefcases were battered with use. A white-robed monk, a grey-haired Negro, a red-fezzed Arab and half a dozen women (where women never had a place before) were sprinkled through the Assembly. In the gallery sat U.S. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery, British Ambassador Alfred Duff Cooper, Russian Ambassador Alexander Bogomolov. On a front bench sat General de Gaulle.

Venerable, rotund Senator Paul Cuttoli, 80-year-old Algeria-born Radical Socialist, delivered the opening address. When he denounced the cartels, there was loud applause.' General de Gaulle spoke briefly. When he said: "We must . . . undertake great reforms," there was loud applause. Then the Assembly chose homely, rhetorical-Felix Gouin, 56, veteran Socialist deputy and head of the Assembly in Algiers, as its president, buckled down to work.

Sounding Board. The Consultative Assembly has no real legislative power. It functions as advisor and consultant of the Provisional Government. But it will be the sounding board of French political opinion until parliamentary elections can be held.

Two pressing political issues before the Assembly:

P: The status of the National Council of Resistance. Now that the underground fight is over, the C.N.R. is struggling to assume a new function. Its Communist steering group wants it to become a kind of council of state, a watchdog to keep France on the path of social reform. The Government wants C.N.R. energies to be absorbed by the Assembly. P: The tension between the Provisional Government and the Communists. By disbanding the leftist Patriotic Militia, Charles de Gaulle had openly clashed with them (TIME, Nov. 13). Now he offered them a sizable sop. By special decree his Government pardoned Maurice Thorez, Secretary of the French Communist Party, father of the 1936 Popular Front. Shortly after war was declared, Thorez left France, was convicted of desertion from the French Army in 1939. Now his return was expected soon. In Paris, Thorez will sit as one of the 14 Communist delegates* in the Assembly, give the powerful French Left shrewd leadership.

*Seven belong to the parliamentary group and seven to the Resistance.

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