music-halls for a meeting of the two Chambers. No session, however, was held at Bordeaux. Most deputies realized that a resumption of political activity in Bordeaux, while the fate of Paris was in doubt, would be viewed unfavourably by the coun- try. Parliamentarians, moreover, had more immediate duties to perform in their constituencies. Parisian deputies had natur- ally remained behind, and for a time assisted Gen. Gallieni in his task of preparing Paris for the fight. Their activities in Paris were such as to lead to some misapprehension, and the fear that there might arise some sort of double government in the country. Those apprehensions were dispelled after a visit paid by Briand to Paris. After the Marne the Government remained at Bor- deaux, endeavouring to make good the many deficiencies in army equipment and training revealed in the opening stages of hostilities. Shell shortage was the chief difficulty, and Millerand also had to consider the terrible deficiencies of French army medi- cal services. Motor ambulances were practically non-existent; wounded had been left for days untended and lying in the filth of cattle and horse trucks; the hospitals themselves were not suffi- ciently numerous; they were badly organized and lacked elemen- tary equipment. It was upon this second point that criticism of the Government first became open. Clemenceau, whose daughter was nursing in one of the Bordeaux hospitals, defying the cen- sorship, daily thundered against the rottenness of Millerand's medical services; and when his paper, L'Homme Libre, was sup- pressed, it reappeared as L'Homme Enchatne.
All the chief organs of public opinion had followed the Govern- ment into exile from the capital, and those which were unable to find printing accommodation at Bordeaux spread them- selves through the cities of the south. During this period, in spite of vigorous censorship, sufficient became known to Parlia- mentarians and to journalists to make it apparent that the com- plete immunity from criticism which the Government had enjoyed could not with public safety be maintained. The de- mand that the censorship be relaxed, and that Parliament should be summoned to meet once more, became insistent.
Return to Paris. The solidification of the front along the trench positions of the Aisne and of Flanders made it possible for the public services to return to Paris, which they did during the month of December. On Dec. 22 1914 the prime minister, Vivi- ani, addressed the Chamber of Deputies, which had not met since Aug. 4. Even vehement critics of Government realized that at this first meeting of the Chamber under war conditions but one feeling could be voiced the national resolve to fight on to. victory. Viviani, in language strikingly similar to that used by Mr. Asquith previously at the Guildhall, declared, " France, in accord with her Allies, will not lay down her arms until she has avenged outraged right, and regained for ever the provinces ravished from her by force, restored to heroic Belgium the fulness of her material prosperity and her political independence, and broken Prussian militarism." He made an eloquent appeal for the maintenance of national unity, saying, " In order to conquer, heroism on the front does not suffice. Union must prevail with- in our walls. Let us preserve the union sacree intact. To-day, as yesterday and to-morrow, let us have but one battle-cry, ' Victory,' but one vision before our eyes, ' La Patrie,' and one ideal, ' Right.' "
Parliamentary Criticism. By the end of 1914 all sections of French opinion had realized that the British had been right in predicting that the war would be long; and those behind the scenes became seriously alarmed at the lack of preparation for a long-drawn-out struggle, the lack of a comprehensive and far- sighted programme of munitions and finance. Parliament had patriotically surrendered all its powers of criticism and control to the executive Government during the critical opening months of hostilities. Early in 1915 deputies, realizing that the only chance of victory lay in proper organization of the whole people for war, and that the trench line was a sufficient barrier behind which to accomplish this work, claimed once more to take an active part in the work of Government. The organization of French parliamentary life was very well adapted to parliamentary control. Through its big committees, representing all political
groupings, the Chamber in peace-time was able to examine in detail all Government bills and all Government action. Those committees ceased to function in Aug. 1914, and did not resume their activities until 1915. When the regular 1915 session of Parliament met on Jan. 12, it was decided, with a view to reduc- ing public sittings to a minimum, to increase the work placed upon those committees. The immediate financial necessities of the country were met by a bill authorizing the issue of Treasury and National Defence bonds. A number of other bills, dealing with points of minor importance, arising out of the war, were also submitted to the House, regulating such questions as naturaliza- tion of enemy aliens, marriage by proxy for men serving at the front, and prohibiting throughout the country the sale of ab- sinthe. Throughout the first five months of this year finance occupied the chief place in parliamentary orders of the day, and Ribot, Minister of Finance, experienced no difficulty whatsoever in obtaining all the credits he considered necessary for the pros- ecution of the war. Outwardly all seemed quiet, but behind the closed doors both of Senate and of Chamber of Deputies Committees, the Government, and particularly Millerand, were being vehemently criticized for their alleged failure to provide the armies in the field with the vast amount of ammunitions of every kind required by trench warfare.
The attack upon Millerand was developed from every side, and the first public contentious debate in Parliament took place on a bill proposed by an advanced Radical, Dalbiez, providing for a vigorous combing-out in war factories and public offices. This bill, although opposed by Millerand, was accepted, though in an amended and somewhat mitigated form, by the Chamber on June 26. On July i a less direct attack upon the Minister of War was met, when the Government, forestalling a demand for the appointment of four war under-secretaries, created two such offices, and nominated Joseph Thierry, who was Minister of Public Works in the Barthou Administration, to be Under-Sec- retary of War for Commissariat, and Justin Godart to be Under- secretary entrusted with the control of the medical services.
Meanwhile, M. Clemenceau, as president of the Army Com- mittee of the Senate, was preparing a strong case against the whole administration of the War Office, and paving the way to public debate on the organization of parliamentary control, and the general relations which should exist in wartime between the three great organs of war-government, Parliament, Government, and the Supreme Command in the field.
The Military Control. It was inevitable that any political cri- sis should either affect or be caused by the relations between the Supreme Command and the Government, and in considering the political history of France during the war this fact has always to be borne in mind. Quite apart from the many politicians who, with more vanity than sincerity, believed themselves to be the heaven-sent Carnots of the great war, there was wide-spread and not unfounded discontent with the bureaucratic methods of M. Millerand, and a wonder whether Gen. Joffre, with his " nib- bling " methods and his vast patience, were really suited to the supreme control of the army. To these broad causes of dissatis- faction there was added one of a purely political nature, when Gen. Sarrail, who had always been identified with advanced Radicalism, was removed from his command at Verdun. (He subsequently became commander-in-chief at Salonika.) This had aroused the political passions of the Left, and they were still further inflamed by the presence of a practising Roman Catholic at the head of the medical services of the army, and by reports of religious pressure being brought to bear upon French wounded. This feeling came to a head when the Radical and Socialist- Radical groups called upon the prime minister to accept parlia- mentary control over all war services, and hinted to him that the departure of the Minister of War from the Cabinet would give it increased strength. M. Millerand, who, throughout the crisis, had displayed a fine obstinacy, declined to resign, and Viviani, after a prolonged Cabinet Council, announced that neither he nor any other member of the Cabinet would resign, thus leaving the Chamber the grave responsibility of upsetting the Govern- ment by a direct vote. Millerand, at an important sitting on
