FRENCH EXPECTATIONS
239
of the totalitarian Communist Party; and if it does make itself known
through this party, it cannot fail to fall under its leadership. Secondly,
the socially conscious masses of the working class and of the middle class
are aware of this fact, and many of their elements are ready to join
transitional platforms with the moderates, who include many conser–
vatives, because they fear Stalinist Communism. Thirdly, the French
government is therefore attempting to gain time and to heal the worst
evils of the present day.
It
is showing caution and believes that France's
destiny is bound to world events whose outcome is not yet in sight.
Fourthly, one feels the need for a social transformation, for a revolution,
which one hopes to achieve at the lowest cost, since the idea of civil war
remains very unpopular.
A return to universal suffrage gives hope that a high majority will
pronounce itself in favor of a decisive change in the economic structure
of the country. But in this case, the moderating influence of women's
votes is feared.
If,
and everything points in this direction, the German people are
finally reduced to complete impotence, France and her Mediterranean
neighbors, Italy and Spain, will be called upon to become the vast social
laboratories of the continent and the great changes which can be foreseen
will probably take place in hitherto unknown forms, completely different
from those of the social struggles that followed the first World War.
Postscript
I have received news directly from France, news which shows a
rather pessimistic state of mind. Rumor has it that the Allied Powers are
opposed to the energetic measures of nationalization and social planning
which might satisfy the claims of social justice, give France a new
prestige and facilitate the beginning of reconstruction. One must suppose
that the economic reconstruction of France will he the source of many
conflicts and strong pressures. Friends write me that: "This will be the
era of the bureaux, of secret services, and of opportunistic careerists who
offer themselves to all sides." I should add that my friends do not be–
long to the category of the discouraged--on the contrary. The very day
of the Yalta Conference, the provisional Government decided to convert
Dakar into a "formidable military, naval and air base." The issue for
the 24th of February of
Pour La Victoire,
which publishes this fact, also
contains a remarkable article by Jules Romains declaring that the French
who, after the First World War, spoke glibly of the end of all wars, now
speak glibly of "the next war." The French at the outposts of European
civilization take into account the fact that the end of the war against
Nazism and Japan will probably bring no solution to the problems of
imperialist rivalries, of totalitarianism, of international security; and they
see that under these conditions the necessary social transformations will
be
infinitely difficult and perilous.
