Which Way France?

Acknowledgment, 7
Preface, 15

I. Non-Stop 1919-32, 21
Armistice Day. Clemenceau. 'Germany Shall Pay.' Millerand. Bolshevik Menace. Poincarl and the Ruhr. Left Election Victory of 1924. Financial Crisis of 1924-26. Herriot. Failure of Geneva Protocol. Locarno the next best thing. Poincaré saves the franc. Briand's peace policy. Three years ofprosperity. End of Poincaré". Tardieu and Laval. Decline of Briand. A great Franco-German Riddle. Briand's death. Tardieu preaching bonne kumeur.

II. The Abortive Front Populaire of 1932, 39
The Left Election Victory of 1932. The Cahiers Huyghens. Conservative Radicals and uncompromising Socialists. The Herriot Cabinet. Lausanne. American War Debts. 1933: Illusion of French Stability. Fall of Daladier Government. End of 1933: the Great Crisis of Parliamentary Government.

III. The Sixth of February and After, 47
The Stavisky Bombshell. Anti-Parliamentary Press Campaign. Chautemps braves the storm. Royalist riots. Fall of Chautemps Government. Daladier Government. Chiappe. 6th of February. 'A Fascist plot?' Support of public opinion. Daladier's resignation. February 7: A night of anarchy. The working class reacts. Communist riot of February 9. Socialist-Communist relations. The General Strike of February 12. Doumergue.

IV. Parliament Bullied by the Street - The Croix de Feu, 64
The Doumergue Cabinet. 'Chantage de la Rue.' The Prince Affair. Colonel de la Rocque. The success of the Croix de Feu. Their mystique. Their strange relations with Doumergue.

V. The Doumergue-Tardieu Plot Against the Republic, 75
Doumergue's wireless antics. His attacks on the Socialists and Communists. Devaluation scare. His Constitutional proposal. The Premier's prerogatives. 'M. Doumergue has revised the British Constitution.' The effect of the Marseilles assassinations. Reshuffle of the Cabinet. Laval becomes Foreign Minister. Blum's slashing attack on Doumergue's reforms. Analogy with MacMahon. The Radical Congress. Herriot's pledge. Intimidation of Parliament. Doumergue's Bluff called. Resignation of his Cabinet. A final threat. Armistice Day 1934. Doumergue proclaimed Fascist leader. Back to Tournefeuille. A first victory over Fascism.

VI. Enter Laval, 93
Back to more normal parliamentary Government. The Flandin Cabinet. M. Flandin. His economic theories. Laval. His policy compared with Barthou's. First meeting with Laval. Personal peculiarities. His career. League and Saar. The International Force. Flirting with Ribbentrop.

VII. The Saar Interlude, 106

VIII. Building on Sand, 123
Laval 'a dustbin of conflicting desires'. His 'triumphant' journey to Rome. How he was bamboozled by Mussolini. Free hand in Abyssinia? The Anglo-French London Communique. The French Army. Lean recruiting years. France doubles term of military service. Blum's attack. A bos les deux ans. Hitler's reply: Conscription in Germany. Simon in Berlin. A comic conference. EXTRACTS FROM A STREGA DIARY. Result of Stresa. Laval signs Franco-Soviet Pact.

IX. Chamber Versus Bank of France: The Double Cabiney Crisis of May-June 1935, 142
Conflict between Flandin and Bank of France. Financial panic. Flandin's surrender. Advocates of devaluation. Reynaud, Mickey Mouse of the Chamber. The comic oneday cabinet of M. Fernand Bouisson. What sort of person he was. Two bald heads. Caillaux's grand entry. And quick exit. The Caillaux legend. Fall of Bouisson Government. Bank of France continues resistance. Laval forms new cabinet. Deflation. Government servants' riots.

X. The Rise of the Front Populaire, 153
After February 6. 'United Front' of August 1934. Socialist and Communist manoeuvring. The Symbolic Election of M. Rivet in May 1935. Blum criticises Stalin. The Front Populaire. Negative attitude of Socialist Congress at Mulhouse. 'Everything or Nothing.' Effect of reappearance of Croix de Feu in June 1935. Laval reassures the Left. The July 14 oath. Blum, Thprez and Daladier meet. Herriot resists. An historical July 14. Apotheosis of Croix de Feu.

XI. France and Abyssinia, 169
Mussolini continues to blackmail France. French annoyed by Anglo-German Naval Agreement. Abyssinian savagery. Mussolini-worship. Michelangelo an agent of Mussolini. Italians bribe French Press. Hoare's Geneva speech. Home Fleet enters Mediterranean. Was Hoare sincere? The British note of October 18 'Only economic sanctions.' Hoare-Laval Plan. The British General Election a swindle?

XII. The Fall of Laval, 181
- 1. The Fascist 'March on Paris'
Croix de Feu's spectacular rentree. Dorgeres and the Peasant Front. Croix de Feu's 'lightning Mobilisations'. Red-counter demonstrations. Street battles. A Fascist putsch? Left Press raises a scare. 'The Army of the Trusts, the Army of Civil War.' Occupation of Paris predicted. Radical Congress. Laval's sop to the Radicals. Was he a Fascist himself? Radicals accept Front Populaire.
- 2. The Left and Abyssinia
British Embassy has to be protected by Gardes Mobiles. Left afraid of military sanctions. 'The whole Press against us.' Blum praises, then attacks British Government. Admits reluctantly military sanctions . Andre* Malraux disgruntled. Herriot praises England, but asks Cot not to speak.
- 3. La Jowrnle de Lamourette, The Croix de Feu 'go Tory'
Provocation on Armistice Day. Shooting affray at Limoges. Another financial panic. The Fascist Leagues debate at the Chamber. Incitement to murder in Action Franfaise. Government attacks Laval. Fascist deputies apologetic. The grand reconciliation scene of December 6. Ybarnlgaray, Blum and Thorez agree on dissolution of military organisations. Anti-Fascist legislation. Effect of December 6. Croix de Feu 'go Tory'. '500 candidates in General Election.'
- 4. Laval's Swan-Song
Laval after Hoare-Laval Plan. His failure to resign. Left protest against 'premium on aggression'. Herriot resigns from Radical Presidency. Laval 'humiliated'. Mussolini lets foV down. Cot and Deltas strike out. Laval's defence of his policy, a masterpiece of insincerity. Majority of twenty. Were the ballot-papers tampered with? Radicals rebel. End of Laval Government. Laval's last thought. Mussolini, quel salaud!

XIII. France a Second-Class Power? The Franco-Soviet Pact and Hitler's Locarno Coup, 210
The Sarraut Government. Sarraut's little mannerisms. Foreign kings and statesmen invade Paris. Security planning. Franco-Soviet Pact discussions. Why Laval delayed ratification. Praise of, and opposition to, the Pact. Herriot and the Red Steam-roller. Volte-face of the Right. Socialists' lukewarm support. Hitler interview in Paris-Midi: 'let us be friends.' But also a warning against ratification of Pact. The Rhineland zone. Its origin. Foch and Lloyd George. Rhineland separatism. Stresemann. 100 per cent of what we wanted.' Hitler and Franco-Soviet Pact. His speech of May 21, 1935. The coup of March 7. 'War?' 'What will England do?' Bewilderment in Paris. Mobilisation? A momentous decision. Instead of mobilisation, appeal to League Council. How Hitler tricked the French Ambassador. British public goes silly over Hitler. Herr Wagner's juridical doctrine. Germany gets away with it. Scraps of paper. A dialogue in a pigsty. A British afterthought: 'The French were damned fools.'

XIV. The Election of 1936 and the Front Populaire Programme, 231
The election issues. La Rocque's 'arbitration' and other well-meaning gibberish. THE FRONT POPULAIRE PROGRAMME. Communists and Joan of Arc. Hitler with a knife between his teeth.

XV. Informal Notes on a Tour Through Various Parts of France in April 1936, 240
The miners of Lens. The devastated regions. Memories of war. Polish miners. M. Hordis and his pals. Croix de Feu shopkeepers. Memories of British troops. An old miner recalls Zola. A comic Socialist candidate. An English hotelkeeper and what he thought of it all. War graves. Gramophone records from the British Officers' mess. The Bourbonnais. Among the peasants of the Allier. The dog's life of a French Deputy. 'The Republic is eternal. The passionate republicans of Evaux-les-Bains. M. Laval, the postman. Silk slump at Lyons. Herriot at the Town Hall. Herriot among the hecklers. 'I am being slandered.' A drunk's views on Doumergue. Strasbourg. A panic on March 7. Heine and Strasbourg Cathedral. Along the Maginot Line. Alsatian Dissident Communists are pro-Nazi. The meaning of Alsatian Autonomism. A revolver to frighten the French. Regionalism. The Robert Burns of Alsace. The Alsatians grumble both under Germany and under France. Nancy and the Comite" des Forges. The Comité des Forges Candidate beaten by the Front Populaire. Peasants for preventive war. A visit to a Lorraine village.

XVI. Enter Lon Blum, 271
The election campaign of 1936. The comic Journal referendum. La Rocque's last appeal. Marshal Pétain goes Croix de Feu. Election results. The life and character of Leon Blum. 'Leader of the Opposition.' Premier-elect. Blum reassures the Banks. The C.G.T. and the Communists. Blum and America. The Murdes Fgderes apotheosis. Bourgeoisie thrilled with handsome young Communist. Blum: 'I am not a Kerensky.' 'Within the framework of Capitalist Society.' The Blum Cabinet. The Great Strike starts.

XVII. The Great Strikes of June 1936, 292
The first stay-in strike at Issy. The first wave of strikes. The stay-in strike at Renault's: JACQUES'S FIRST STORY. The strikes spread over whole of France after Whitsun week-end. A spontaneous movement. Trotsky's irony. 350,000 strikers in Paris area. Threatened food panic. No newspapers. The Grands Magasins. Blum's first broadcast. At Renault's: JACQUES'S SECOND STORY. Communists overwhelmed. But both they and C.G.T. take credit for strikes. C.G.T. membership jumps to five million. Communist victory Festival. The Soviet Flag of France. Thorez proclaims New Legality.

XVIII. What the Workers Gained, 315
Blum Government at the Chamber. 'Stay-in strikes are illegal.' The Matignon Agreement. Jouhaux: 'Working class's greatest victory.' Retrospect of French Trade Unionism. Why it was weak. How it became strong. Collective Contracts. Recognition of Trade Union rights. Holidays with pay. Forty-hour week.

XIX. The French 'New Deal', 329
Policy of Deflation reversed. 'Greater purchasing-power.' Caillaux critical. Vincent Auriol goes easy. 'Baby bonds.' Period of transition. September 25: devaluation of franc. Anglo-Franco-American declaration. The Devaluation Law. Senate's bad humour. Anger over stay-in strikes.

XX. '200 Families' and 'Merchants of Death', 339
Three important reforms. Office du file". Stability of Agriculture. Reform of Bank of France. Bank's political influence. Doing away with financial oligarchy. 'France's Bank.' Public credit controlled by the State. Marchands de canons. The moral case. France leads the way. Pierre Cot on Nationalisation of aeroplane production. 'Not only moral, but also efficient.'

XXI. La Rocque and Doriot, 352
Dissolution of the Croix de Feu. Meeting with La Rocque on night of dissolution. 'A period of persecution.' The Window Plebiscite. Riots in Champs-Elysees. The army parade of July 14: a moment of national unity. The Pare des Princes riots. La Rocque's competitor: Doriot. A Communist who renounced Moscow. His programme. A trip to St. Denis. Marseilles gangsters and Paris intellectuals. 'Doriot a Berlin!'

XXII. 'Aeroplanes for Spain!', 370
Blum's foreign policy. In May 1936 the League was in ruins. Therefore: caution and friendship with England. Delbos and 'interpretation' of Covenant. Hitler goes ahead; Austria and Danzig. Blum makes a good impression in London. The Spanish Civil war. Help for Spain? 'C'est très délicat.' England and Delbos put on the brake. August 8. 'Non-intervention a dupes' game.' French Right supports Franco. Red atrocity stones. 'Aeroplanes for Spain!' La Pasionaria in Paris. Irun. Blum's Apologia. 'Spain a German colony?'

XXIII. The Suicide of Salengro, 391
France's Home Secretary hounded to death. The spirit of February 6. Gringoire and the Chiappe gang. Stirring up hatred. Slander as an instrument of Fascist policy. The new Libel Bill.

XXIV. The Eve of 1937, 399
German expeditionary forces in Spain. Morocco in danger. Delbos's 'limits'. Communists' Abstention in Confidence Vote on Blum's foreign policy. Friction within Front Populaire. Provincial Radicals scared of Moscow. Consolidation of security in the West. French opportunism in Eastern Europe. Improved economic outlook. Two great causes of anxiety.

Index, 411