Cliff-Edge Drama

That old melodrammer The Perils of Marianne went into a new chapter last week. With France being sucked into the buzz saw of bankruptcy, strikes threatening the mortgage on the old homestead, Premier Rene Mayer had one of those ideas which come only to topflght scenarists and agile politicians. Picking up the transatlantic telephone, he asked Washington: What about a Big Three international conference? The answer was: it's on the way (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Back in the Assembly the deputies were debating Mayer's demand for special powers to make budget cuts. The government was tottering; the Gaullists who had helped Mayer to office 135 days earlier, helped him stay in power when he dashed off to Washington eight weeks ago, were gunning for him now. Calmly, Mayer walked into the chamber. Would anyone dare to level him on the eve of the international Big Meeting? The threat should have paralyzed the pesky Gaullists, for the honor of France was involved. But the gold dust of political office is a notorious corrupter of strong men. With De Gaulle himself retired and back on the reservation, the boys were just itching to shake down the town. The Assembly voted, and the Mayer government fell, 328-244. It was the 18th to fall since 1945.

Said Rene Mayer: "Once again a singularly inopportune demonstration of that phenomenon of political instability which discredits France in the world and the regime in the country." At week's end President Vincent Auriol was still scanning the hills for sight of a new Premier.

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