Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

CRISIS IN FRANCE: The government of Pierre Pflimlin, which has so far maintained control of the volatile situation in France, has not, however, acquired the necessary strength to impose decisive measures as it is pervaded by internal dissent. Prime Minister Pflimlin is only supported by the Socialists and the Democratic Catholics and is struggling to contain the separatist movement of the French in Algeria led by certain military leaders, who have been granting broad rights to General Raoul Salan, but no one knows whether that military leader is in agreement with the government’s policy for resolving the Algerian problem. In the French capital, all the cadres of left-wing parties and unions are on continued alert at their headquarters, as are the police force, the security departments of the Democratic Guard and powerful corps of the gendarmerie who have been transferred from the provinces. Paris is reliving the atmosphere similar to that experienced on the days of Napoleon III’s coup d’etat. One has the impression that General Charles de Gaulle is waiting for an official invitation from the president of the Republic and the French National Assembly to assume power and to save the nation.