851.00/12–2347: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
5514. The friends of De Gaulle in the Assembly are bent upon making trouble for the Schuman government. As I reported in my telegrams 5480, December 20 and 5487, December 211 they have been asking for early new elections and they will not be helpful to Rene Mayer in his attempts to pull France out of the economic morass where she is now floundering.
As I have frequently pointed out, the De Gaullist tactics have been based on the belief that no French Government could succeed this winter in view of the prevailing hardships and that after the inevitable collapse towards the end of the winter De Gaulle would be called back by public acclaim to power. However, they have never allowed themselves to be pinned down as to exactly how they expect this to come about.
Schuman’s unexpected success against the Communist strikes amazed them and at this juncture even the bare possibility that Rene Mayer might succeed fills them with concern.
It is satisfactory to be able to say that I have found recently that some supporters of De Gaulle are becoming disgusted with these tactics.
- Neither printed.↩