Word: mending
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...Premier dared to tell the U.S. (which wants a German contribution to Western defense) the truth about EDC's chances in Parliament-the truth apparently being that there is not a findable majority in both houses for the treaty in its present form. Last week Premier Pierre Mendès-France, man of elan, defied both bugaboos. He loaded the project with "interpretive protocols" (actually drastic amendments) and scheduled it for debate and vote, Aug. 28-31. He has told Secretary Dulles that unless EDC is modified, it would be voted down in the Assembly by about 50 votes...
Foreign economists cheered. But to many a French businessman raised in the hothouse atmosphere of protectionism and subsidy, Mendès' program seemed more like an invitation to pneumonia...
...Premier's office Mendès called politicians, union men and bankers, explaining to them that "there will be things you don't like." Then he and Edgar Faure marched into the National Assembly...
Reynaud's biggest worry was that the New Deal might cut military expenses to win economic gains. "For eight years you have been in opposition," he told Mendès-France, "and often you have made it plain that you would save money by reducing military expenditure. Are you betting the peace of the world on the good will of the Kremlin or on the defensive alliance of the Atlantic? I am among those who will not agree to gamble the survival of France on a hand of poker...
Question of Confidence. Stung, Mendès-France leaped up to reply. In the 1955 budget, cuts would have to be made in both military and civilian expenses, he said. But he promised "a rigorous defense" of the currency; to mollify the workers and peasants, he promised to lower the barriers to foreign competition "with the utmost prudence." But in the main lines of his program, and in his demand for full power, Mendès-France would not yield a centimeter. "The vote will be a question of confidence," he told the National Assembly, and in the prevailing atmosphere...