Foreign News: Point of No Return

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Two years ago French Communist Boss Maurice Thorez, reported to be suffering from a stroke, was flown to Russia on a stretcher. Since then, a stream of visiting French Communist functionaries have reported Thorez in good health. In the 1951 general election he was returned to the National Assembly in absentia. Last September, acting Communist Boss Jacques Duclos announced that Thorez "is preparing to return to France to retake his place at our head."

This week France's Communists were all set to welcome back "notre cher Maurice" as the Communist propaganda calls him. Out of the Warsaw plane stepped his wife Jeannette, but not our dear Maurice. Explained Communist L'Humanite: police may be waiting to arrest him if he returns. Although the government recently threatened to lift parliamentary immunity from Communist deputies, a more plausible explanation for Thorez' continued absence, apart from health, is the Kremlin's latest policy (as evidenced in the purging of Party Militants Marty and Tillon) of playing down open Communist activities in France.