FRANCE: Keeping Its Place

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Last month, shortly after Neighbor Britain announced that it would build H-bombs, Premier Edgar Faure announced almost casually that France would follow suit. "If things go on as they are," Faure explained, "there will be a line dividing great and powerful nations . . . that have thermonuclear means, and inferior countries. France cannot take a place among 'second-class' great powers." Faure's decision appealed to Frenchmen's pride, but it threatened to dig too deeply into their pockets. If France wants to join the H-bomb club, warned Faure's own Ministry of Finance, higher taxes will be needed to pay for nuclear spending. Last week, after "long reflection," the French Cabinet made up its mind where France's place lay. "We have decided to eliminate the idea [of making H-bombs]," said Premier Faure. France will confine itself to developing atomic power for peaceful purposes, but just the same, said Faure, France expects "to keep its place as a great power."