Up to the General

"To the lamp post!"--the French Revolution's cry for summary justice--was heard again in modern form in France last week. Mild-mannered Franc,ois de Menthon, French Minister of Justice, reported to the Consultative Assembly on the purge. Thus far, 60,000 prosecutions, 7,053 sentences (including 574 death sentences) have been carried out. Minister De Menthon was interrupted by fierce heckling. Cried resistance delegates: too many reprieves--"danger to the nation in a policy of weakness and evasion on matters of repression."

For three days the delegates fumed and sputtered. They proposed to censure the Government by sharply reducing appropriations for the Justice Ministry. Finance Minister Rene Pleven dissuaded them. But they voted (174 to 14) for another censorious resolution:

"The Assembly regrets that its reiterated views regarding the purge . . . have not been taken into consideration. It puts on record that the Minister of Finance . . . has affirmed that it will not be so in the future. It withholds appropriations pending complementary explanations from the head of the Government."

The head of the Government is General Charles de Gaulle, who has openly favored moderation in the purge. Now the question of the purge was up to him.

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