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The Price of Napoleons. The second crisis immediately facing France—the real prospect of international bankruptcy —De Gaulle put in the capable hands of grey little Antoine Pinay, the man who "saved the franc" in 1952. (No economist, De Gaulle last week waved off Pinay's one attempt to outline an economic policy to him with the comment: "As I said, you're my Finance Minister.") Pointing unhappily to the fact that France's deficit with the European Payments Union ran $76.6 million in May, Pinay flatly warned that France probably would have to defer meeting its obligation to ease tariffs and import quotas under the European Common Market treaty. Simultaneously, he opened negotiations with the U.S. to defer payment of $54 million due on U.S. loans to France at the end of this month. So great is Pinay's prestige with French businessmen that, despite these gloomy announcements, prices on the Paris Bourse began to climb and the price of gold Napoleons—always a measure of French public confidence in a government—sank from the crisis level of 4,000 francs to a mere 3,600.
While Pinay coped with the economy, De Gaulle with unflagging energy plunged at last into the problem that he believes underlies all the rest of France's political difficulties: the nation's lack of a strong executive. Late in the week, after a brisk Cabinet meeting, De Gaulle emerged with a tentative plan to have his proposed constitutional reforms, including major changes in the relations between France and its empire, ready for a referendum on Oct. 5. Amidst predictions of disaster from France's pessimists, he also announced that municipal elections—the first in six years—would be held in revolt-torn Algeria next month.
White Gloves & Scarlet Braid. At week's end, as the tumult in France began to subside, a covey of cars laden with luggage drew up before the Hotel Matignon, official residence of France's Premiers, and quiet, motherly Yvonne de Gaulle set about a practiced housekeeper's inspection of her new home. She had already ordered two cocktail dresses and two evening gowns from Couturier Jacques Heim. The only visible change made in deference to the new occupants of the Hotel Matignon was the sight of the guards: normally clad in quiet blue uniforms, they had blossomed out in more regal white gloves, white belts, and great swatches of scarlet braid. And the usually bored ushers, who had seen more than two dozen French Premiers come and go since the war, crowded the windows to witness the arrival of the slightly paunchy, stiff and self-assured Premier who looked as if he would be around for a while.
*The elder of De Gaulle's two surviving children. His second child, Elizabeth, 32, is married to an army colonel on service in Algeria. The De Gaulles' youngest child, Anne, was feeble-minded and weak of body, and because she needed it most, got most of her parents' affection until her death at 18 in 1948 of bronchopneumonia. In her memory, Madame de Gaulle founded and still supervises the Anne de Gaulle home for retarded children.