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And there remains the nettlesome, wearisome subject of EDC. Mendès-France insists that there has never been a majority for EDC in its present form in the Assembly, despite what U.S. diplomats report. But he thinks there is ,a majority for some kind of German rearmament. Perhaps it is the kind described in the current Parisian quip: "The French want a German army bigger than Russia's [175 divisions] but smaller than France's [18 divisions]."
Mendès' solution for the problem is to turn it over to two of his Cabinet members, one ardently for EDC (Radical Maurice Bourgés-Maunoury) and the other (Defense Minister Pierre Koenig, a Gaullist) with a strong aversion for putting French soldiers under any supranational authority. He told them to work something out.
The trick will be to find something the French Assembly will accept and other member nations of EDC will not reject. Possible Gallic compromise: ratify the EDC treaty, but with two reservations in added protocols—that "unanimity of vote" should be required for the first five years (thus giving France a veto on any action it dislikes) and an escape clause allowing France to get out after ten years. At least Mendès is the first French Premier to set a deadline on submitting the EDC proposals to the Assembly for a yes or no vote.
Unanswered Questions. French partisans of EDC mistrust Mendès. Last week Bidault snapped: "This man is either Disraeli or Kerensky," and went off to pick mushrooms in the Versailles woods. Now that Mendès has ticked off half of his allotted time, other Frenchmen, sympathetic to his aims but doubtful of his chances, are asking questions. Is Mendès an innocent in all but economic matters, surrounded by inexperienced intellectuals united only by their dislike of inertia? Or is he a self-disciplined realist who expresses a French mood of grim resolution? Or is he Kerensky, the last man before surrender?
Nobody yet had the answers. If Mendès succeeds in all his aims, France might be in sounder, if more modest, circumstances than it had been in years. And if Mendès-France fails? Said a cynic: "The old gang will come back. Indo-China will still be lost, because as a nation we aren't really ready to fight for Indo-China, and our allies aren't ready to fight if we aren't. EDC might scrape through, more likely be blocked. The Americans and British will rearm the Germans anyway, which we will be bitter about but will accept. France will still be rich enough not to go bankrupt, or important enough so that the U.S. won't let her go bankrupt."
Mendès himself thinks he will probably not last a full year, and may go down much sooner. "But by that time the logic of Mendès' views will be clear to the country," explains a disciple earnestly. "There may be dissolution and new elections, or we may have to wait longer. But people will see to it that Mendès-France eventually gets back."
Will Mendès bring off his gamble? The country was for giving him a chance, and while it was, the Deputies dared not vote against him. He has until July 20, and all the while the clock is ticking.