FRANCE: Diagnosis

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When a government is defeated in France, it continues to carry on the nominal functions of administration while the President of the Republic invites leaders of the other parties to try their hand at forming a new government—usually beginning with an unlikely candidate and (always excepting the Communists) moving on up the roster to the possible. There is a Gallic gimmick in this: by making the process seem over-leisurely, the President relies on rising public impatience to compel the Assembly finally to vote some government into power. Last week, casually reviewing candidates to end France's 19th political crisis in 7½years, the lords of the Assembly were momentarily shocked out of their lethargy by a man who was only the third invited to form a cabinet: belligerent, button-eyed Paul Reynaud, 74, last Premier of France in the days before World War II swallowed up the Third Republic. Before the Assembly, Reynaud ran down the ills which, he said, had made France "the sick man of Europe."

Finance: "Since the war, the franc has lost nine-tenths of its value."

Economy: "The standard of living of the country as a whole is artificial, and would drop if we ceased to receive aid which enables us to buy abroad the raw materials which feed our factories. We are the only country which has not improved its position since the Korean war . . . "

Agriculture: "Our agricultural exports last year were so low and our agricultural imports so high that we were able to cover only 53% of these imports by exports . . . There is a frightening gap between French agricultural prices and those of most European countries . . . We rank tenth in wheat yield per acre."

Industry: "While American production has doubled since 1929, while Britain's has increased by 54%, Holland's by 52%, ours has only increased by 8%—including building . . . Why this relative French decadence on the industrial plane? Because we are a country where many people want to keep the profits of the capitalist regime without respecting its laws, of which the first one is free competition. These people allow neither external nor internal competition. Agreements result in the fixing of sales prices according to the production costs of the most backward enterprises."

Government: "Ministerial instability . . . is an obstacle to the recovery of the country and places us in a position of inferiority in the world. It was the profound vice of the Third Republic."