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Thus, lightheartedly, Britons symbolized the purge which seemed certain to come soon. The general grumbling against Chamberlain was last week crystallized by the no longer escapable realization that the Allies are badly short of munitions, planes, tanks. In pubs voices blurted out: "Chamberlain ought to shoot himself" words much stronger than "Incompetent" were used to describe the former Prime Minister. A New Statesman and Nation editorial said: "[Daladier] has a more personal responsibility for the initial military failure than any single British statesman. . . . There is little doubt that his going will influence political developments in Britain. Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Caldecote, Lord Simon and Sir Kingsley Wood . . . are tarred with the same brush. . . .
M. Reynaud has given Mr. Churchill a clear lead." If & when this was accomplished, the Era of Appeasement would be finally dead, buried and forgotten, if unforgiven. If defeat could be postponed, what would be the nature of the new Allied phase? Best clue to the answer was to be found in what followed last week's French purge.
It looked like the beginning (if it was not too late to begin) of an Era of Dynamism -not of Dynamism's unscrupulous principles but its desperate institutions. How else to meet the thoroughgoing Dynamism of Hitler?
Reynaud's Hands. The communique announcing the fall of Daladier said: "The Premier becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs at the same time as Minister of National Defense, these two Ministries assuring the conduct of the war." Thus Paul Reynaud gave himself the authority of virtual dictator on the conduct of the war. But far more important was the strength and nimbleness of the helping hands he gathered around him. Four appointments in particular were striking: >As his Chief Assistant in the War
Ministry he chose General Charles de Gaulle, 50, a lanky, pale, mustached mili tary innovator who for 20 years has pounded home one point in theses, con ferences, articles, reports: if France was to meet Germany on equal terms she must have the motors of offense -tanks, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes. Charles de Gaulle had not long graduated from elite St.-Cyr when he matriculated into a tougher school -World War I. He served actively in Poland in 1920, inactively as a post war staff officer under Petain, then in Syria, then in Paris. Only three years ago he became a colonel; only three weeks ago -with the advent of Weygand, who knows his worth -he became a general.
The basis of the elastic defense-in-depth which was France's last hope last week was laid down in de Gaulle's Vers I'Annee de Metier.
>To help sweep the dust out of the Foreign Ministry, Paul Reynaud chose a brand-new broom: Paul Baudouin, 45, second from left on TIME'S cover. After a brilliant flying career in World War I, Baudouin picked up some political point ers as private secretary to Finance Minis ters de Monzie, Caillaux, Painleve, Lou-cheur, Doumer. Having married a Ma demoiselle Angoulvant whose father was a high muck-a-muck in Indo-China, he went to work for the Bank of Indo-China, made a beeline for the East. In five years he became general manager. Recently he had been back in France working with Reynaud in the Council of Ministers.