French Third Republic

The French Third Republic (in French, La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) from 4 September 1870 to 10 July 1940 was the political name of France between the Second French Empire and the French State. It was a republican parliamentary state that was created following the defeat of the French Empire of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War. The Third Republic's first President was Adolphe Thiers (1871-1873), who described republicanism in the 1870s as "the form of government that divides France least."

It became widely discredited, conspired with Russia against the German Empire, deliberately took France into two unnecessary World Wars, and was beset by scandals, such as the Oustric financial scandal which contributed to the overthrow by the Senate of the first Tardieu Cabinet in December 1930, and the sensational Stavisky affair. A commentator stated: "The instability of French governments [Cabinets] had grave disadvantages".

The Third Republic is held to have died a natural death when the National Assembly voted (569 votes to 80) to give full powers to the French State under the authority and signature of the Premier, Marshal Philippe Pétain on 10 July 1940.

"I have not met a single Frenchman who could say a good word for the pre-war [Third Republic] government." – Admiral Leahy, USA Ambassador, writing from Vichy to President Roosevelt.

Great seal of the French Republic

Clericalism

Following the Separation Act of 1905, the Republican State recognized no religion, though the religious problem was not entirely absent from French politics. It has been asserted that, whatever be the apparent cause of political cleavages, the real line of demarcation between groups was determined by the attitude towards the Church.The groups of The Right, socially conservative and upholders of authoritative government, find in the Church a natural ally against anarchical revolution. Their philosophy, like that of the Church, postulates an imperfect humanity prone to follow wrong paths and needing a strong directing hand. The groups of The Left, ardent advocates of a perceived freedom, jealous of authority, hostile to discipline, see in the Church a stronghold of reaction manned by enemies of democracy. The age-long quarrel between clericalism and anti-clericalism flared up anew from time to time, particularly about education, the aim of each party being to ensure that the young generation shall be brought up to share its outlook on life. The Radical Party, for instance, which had been almost continually in power in pre-WWII 20th century, clinged to an obsolete anti-clerical policy which stirred the memories of the older men. In practice by the 1930s nobody supposed there was a clerical peril.

Anglophobia

Anglophobia was common-place in France despite The Great War. On 11 October 1938 Henri Béraud, writing an in-depth report in the popular newspaper Gringoire, created a diplomatic incident by expounding how many French still felt, saying that "in France only hall-porters and Flandin are pro-British", and reminding readers of the Hundred Years War, stated:

I hate England in my own name and in the name of my ancestors. I hate her by instinct and by tradition. I say, and I repeat that England must be reduced to slavery.....The day will come when the world will have the strength and the wisdom to enslave the tyrant with his reputation for invincibility. Concord between the continental nations alone can save Europe and the world. Who knows? Perhaps the day is near.

Constitution

Although there have been political changes for a century and more, the basis of French organization has remained substantially the same since the days of Napoleon I. The French Revolution's "Declaration of the Rights of Man" (1789) stated: "The principal of all sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation". The Third Republic's legislative machinery dates from 1875, when the Constitution was framed and passed by the Assembly (Senate & Chamber) at Versailles. Only twice have amendments of details been made. These Constitutional Laws were however incomplete, and at recurrent intervals there was much talk of a revision of the Constitution.

The President of the Republic was elected for seven years by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. He could not communicate with Parliament except by messages countersigned by a Minister. The President was regarded as a sort of arbiter; he was not supposed to show any party discrimination; his business was merely to preside. He could choose the Prime Minister or Premier (President du Conseil) and he was present at Ministerial Councils (Cabinets); he was entitled to express his opinion which carried more or less weight according to his personal prestige and the nature of his relations with the Ministers. In choosing a Premier the President must listen to the advice of the President of the Senate, who was the second person of the Republic, and of the President of the Chamber, who is the third person of the Republic. Both these presidents, whatever may be their party predilections, were supposed to aim at impartiality. It was possible for a President to continue in office even when his convictions were different from those of the Premier. He could make his private protest and wash his hands of responsibility. Nominally the President was a highly important personage, but in reality the Premier is supreme. As with Cabinets and Premiers, French Presidents have been somewhat unfortunate.

1. Adolphe Thiers (1873-187).
2. Marshal MacMahon (1873-1879) Forced to resign after coming into conflict with parliament.
3. Jules Grévy (1879-1885 and 1885-1887) Ousted as a consequence of a scandal concerning the sale of honours.
4. Sadi Carnot (1887-1894) Assassinated.
5. Casimir Périer (June 1894-January 1895) Resigned.
6. Félix Faure (1895-1899) Sudden death.
7. Emile Loubet (1899-1906)
8. Armand Fallieres (1906-1913)
9. Raymond Poincaré (1913-1920)
10. Paul Deschanel (18 February - 21 September 1920) Resigned due to ill health.
11. Alexandre Millerand (23 September 1920 - 11 June 1924) Resigned as he disapproved of Cabinet.
12. Gaston Doumergue (1924-1931)
13. Paul Doumer (1931-1932) Assassinated.
14. Albert Lebrun (1932-11 July 1940) His term had been extended due to World War II.

Parliament

In 1937 the French Parliament consisted of the Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. The Deputies and Senators only ever meet together as the National Assembly, at Versailles, to (a) revise the Constitution or (b) to elect the President of the Republic. Otherwise they had their own chambers in Paris.

The duration of the mandate in the Chamber of Deputies was four years. A Deputy had to be aged 25 years. The number of deputies varied with the population, but in 1937 it was 615 (being one member for every 75,000 inhabitants). The Chamber commonly voted on laws and had the right of interpallating ministers. It also had the right to vote on the budget in the first instance.

The duration of the mandate in the Senate was nine years by indirect suffrage (2nd or 3rd degree), voting by Departmental List. Every three years a third of the members retired but could stand for re-election. The Senate had 314 members; it was never dissolved as a whole. A Senator had to be aged forty years. The Senate had the right (used once - in 1877) of dissolving the Chamber of Deputies in agreement with the President of the Republic. The Senate itself cannot be dissolved. It may also be constituted as a High Court of Justice.

Some Elections and Cabinets

Leon Blum, Premier of the Popular Front Government, depicted under communist control.

1932 General Election

The previous election had been in 1928. Chamber seats after the Left-wing victory:

• Right: being Conservatives, U.R.D. [the 'Marin group-largest of the Right Groups] and Independent Republicans. Lost 15 seats.
• Centre: being Popular Democrats and Republicains de Gauche (its leaders André Tardieu and Pierre-Étienne Flandin later split the party.): 88. Lost 32.
• Left Centre: Independent Radicals: 62. Lost 28.
• Republican Socialists [Briand-Painlevé Group.]: 37. Gain 5.
• Radicals: 157. Gain 48.
• Socialists: 129. Gain 17
• Dissident Communists: 11. Gain 6.
• Communists: 12. Gain 2.

Paul-Boncour's Cabinet 18 December 1932 – 31 January 1933

• Joseph Paul-Boncour – President of the Council (Premier) and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Édouard Daladier – Minister of War
• Camille Chautemps – Minister of the Interior
• Henri Chéron – Minister of Finance
• Albert Dalimier – Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
• Abel Gardey – Minister of Justice
• Georges Leygues – Minister of Marine
• Léon Meyer – Minister of Merchant Marine
• Paul Painlevé – Minister of Air
• Anatole de Monzie – Minister of National Education
• Edmond Miellet – Minister of Pensions
• Henri Queuille – Minister of Agriculture
• Albert Sarraut – Minister of Colonies
• Georges Bonnet – Minister of Public Works
• Charles Daniélou – Minister of Public Health
• Laurent Eynac – Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
• Julien Durand – Minister of Commerce and Industry

Flandin's Cabinet, 8 November 1934 – 1 June 1935

• Pierre-Étienne Flandin – President of the Council (Premier)
• Georges Pernot – Vice President of the Council and Minister of Justice
• Pierre Laval – Foreign Affairs
• Louis Maurin – War
• Marcel Régnier – Interior
• Louis Germain-Martin – Finance
• Paul Jacquier – Labour
• François Piétri – Military Marine
• William Bertrand – Merchant Marine
• Victor Denain – Air
• André Mallarmé – National Education
• Georges Rivollet – Pensions
• Émile Casset – Agriculture
• Louis Rollin – Colonies
• Henri Roy – Public Works
• Henri Queuille – Public Health and Physical Education
• Georges Mandel – Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
• Paul Marchandeau – Commerce and Industry
• Édouard Herriot – Minister of State
• Louis Marin – Minister of State

1936 General Election

The final results after the second ballot, compared with the old Chamber (before it rose) were:

• Right: Conservatives, U.R.D.,[Marin group] and Popular Democrats (Roman Catholics): 122 (105)
• Centre: Left Republicans and Independent radicals: 116 (164)

• The Left: 380 (346) made up as follows:-

1. Radicals: 116 (158)
2. Socialist Union [Paul-Boncour] and other small Left parties: 36 (66)
3. Socialists: 146 (101)
4. Dissident Communists (Pupistes): 10 (11)
5. Communists: 72 (10)

New Chamber 618 (615).

1939

The French Third Republic was instrumental in laying the foundations for World War II (as they & Russia had for World War I), firstly by their unreasonable demands included in the Treaty of Versailles, their occupation of German territory after that, their appalling non-neutral behaviour in Upper Silesia during the insurrections, reparations demands, and their infamous cordon sanitaire - the hostile encirclement of Germany through treaties with all Germany's neighbours. In particular their support for Poland was notorious, with treaties of mutual military assistance etc., aimed against Germany. They had even signed a similar treaty, on 2 May 1935, with the same objective, with the murderous Soviet Union, who, in 1939, France (and Britain) desperately attempted to get agreement to March through Poland and Romania to attack Germany. On 19 August 1939 France's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, told the Minister at the British Embassy in Paris (Campbell) that if Poland disallowed this request it would be "an untenable situation for Poland to take up in refusing the only immediate efficacious help that could reach them in the event of a German attack. It would place His Majesty's Government and the French Government in an almost impossible position if we had to ask our respective countries to go to war in defence of a Poland who had refused this help......The Poles had made every mistake in their treatment of the Germans over the Danzig question which was very unwise."

An agreement was concluded in Paris also on 19 August 1939 for a grant of credits amounting to 430 million francs to the Polish Government by the French Government for defence purposes. Taking account of the Rambouillet Loan, French financial assistance to Poland for military purposes amounted to over three milliard francs during the past three years.

Diplomacy failures

The German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Baron von Weizacker, received the French Ambassador in Berlin on August 15th following the latter's visit to Paris. Coulondre stated that whilst France desired nothing more ardently than a German-Polish settlement, especially with regard to Danzig, any conflict between Germany and Poland would automatically involve France. France was making her stand. In reply von Weizsacker cast a wide net and all kinds of arguments which characterized Poland's unbridled suicidal policies and provocations, presenting to Coloundre lists of them. Poland, he said, had become bolder and her behaviour had significantly worsened since the Anglo-French Guarantees to Poland in March and April. (This was in addition to the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee between France and Poland, concluded at Locarno, 16 October 1925.) Von Weizsacker urged the French Ambassador to better acquaint himself with Poland's overall conduct. It should be pointed out that Robert Coulondre was very anti-German. He signed the first Franco-Soviet trade agreement 1 November 1934. In 1935, as the French delegate to the League of Nations, he pressed for more raw materials to be included in the sanctions applied against Italy. In 1936, he was appointed the French ambassador to the Soviet Union by hard-left socialist Premier Léon Blum. Part of Coulondre's mission in Moscow was to present Stalin with a choice between promoting the French Communist Party or building an anti-German alliance. In October 1938, Coulondre was appointed the French ambassador to Germany as the new French Premier, Édouard Daladier, was determined to wrest control of France's foreign policy from his appeasement-minded Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet and felt that replacing André François-Poncet as ambassador to Berlin with Coulondre, a diplomat known for anti-Nazi views, was a way of weakening Bonnet.

On August 22nd the French Cabinet met under Daladier's chairmanship following the coup de théatre created by the German-Soviet Pact. The Premier spoke for some time with General Gamelin about military measures. On August 24th Daladier announced that the Government had decided to complete the military measures already taken by calling up a further contingent of reservists. It was reported by a non-German foreign correspondent that authoritative French circles were not clear as to whether, in view of the present strategic position and strength of Germany, Britain and France would be strong enough to undertake military intervention against Germany upon the outbreak of a German-Polish conflict.

World War II

When the crunch came after twenty years of the Germans' trying to negotiate with Poland having failed, and the German-Polish war broke out on 1st September 1939, three days later France allowed the British Government to bully them into declaring war against Germany, due to their treaty obligations. The British-French war declaration turned a local conflict into a world war and forced the Germans to look to their backs. The French people were divided on this and no-one wanted to "die for Danzig" which everyone agreed was a German city anyway, or to fight for Poland, a very long way off. In addition, the First World War and the vast losses were fresh in everyone's memories. During 1938 and 1939 there were three factions within the French government: One, the "peace lobby" led by Georges Bonnet, the Foreign Minister, felt that France could not afford an arms race with Germany and sought a détente with the Reich. French military morale was at rock bottom, and the Treaty of Locarno stipulated that the Franco-German border was sacrosanct and could not be violated. So the reality was there was no way the Third Republic could actually assist anyone in Eastern Europe. Apart from the Munich Agreement, French diplomacy between 1919 and 1939 had been a catastrophe.

The Chamber voted the declaration of war on Germany only by implication: it was when it agreed unanimously to the opening of military credits amounting to 500 million francs. Yet Bonnet, on September 2nd, had made an attempt to stop the British Government from declaring war the next day. He had been in constant communication with Count Ciano, and the Italian Government were proposing an arbitration conference for September 5th. Bonnet was prepared to attend the conference without demanding a German withdrawal from Polish territory. Following the British formal declaration of war the next day, Premier Daladier removed Bonnet from the Foreign Office (he remained, however, as Minister of Justice).

There followed the Phoney War during which secret efforts were made towards peace.

Discontent

Outside the Cabinet the opposition to the war was more outspoken. After the conquest of Poland, Flandin said to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber: "Is it really worth going on with this?" On September 8th "The Spanish Embassy in Paris reported to its government that Georges Bonnet, in view of the great unpopularity of the war in France, is still endeavoring to bring about an understanding as soon as the operations in Poland are concluded; indications are that he is in contact with Mussolini to that end." On September 17th the French Diplomatic Courier, Henri Blanche, visited the German Minister in Luxemburg (Radowitz) as they were close friends. The Quai 'Orsay had asked Blanche to get in contact with a German Chief of Mission in another country. Blanche told Radowitz, in confidence, that many people in France believed that England had dragged France into the most calamitous (fatale) situation, and these people were beginning to exert pressure on the Quai d'Orsay to find an honourable way out of it, since they regard intensification of the war between France and Germany as a catastrophe. Radowitz replied that Hitler had repeatedly declared he did not want war with France and wanted nothing from France. He forwarded the report of this meeting to Baron von Weisacker, Secretary of State at the German Foreign Office, the same day. On October 2nd, von Weisacker was told by the Royal Italian Ambassador in Berlin about the peace inclinations within the French Cabinet. The Royal Italian Ambassador in Paris had reported that Count Ciano's visit to Berlin (Oct 1st) "has excited great interest and expectation in Paris. Any proposal regarding peace negotiations which Italy might make to France would be received with sympathy provided it was not a mere communication of 'decisions already definitely taken'. One of the most distinguished members of the French Government has confirmed to me that the question of form is the most important consideration......It would be a question of enabling France and England to save face. These are the views of the majority of the Cabinet members. Up to now, however, Daladier has not been in touch with Chamberlain."

Invasion

Finally, on 10 May 1940 Germany invaded and the Battle for France took place. It was a catastrophe. The French government declared Paris an 'Open City' and fled to Tours, and then Bordeaux. Paris was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on June 14th. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.

1940 Cabinets

On 5 June 1940 Paul Reynard informed Marshal Pétain that he had decided to reshuffle his Cabinet (for the second time in two months), and offered him the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Marshal declined saying he was not qualified for the job. The reshuffle took place the next day, in Paris, with Daladier and de Monzie dismissed because they were too much in favour of peace talks with Italy. Here is the new Cabinet, ratified by President Albert Lebrun. It lasted 10 days:

• Premier, Minister for Foreign Affairs & National Defence: Paul Reynard.
• Deputy Premier and Minister of State: Marshal Philippe Pétain.
• Ministers of State: Camille Chautemps; Jean Ybarnegaray (to Sept 6th); & Louis Marin (only to 16 June 1940).
• Interior: Georges Mandel (only to June 16th).
• Finance: Yves Bouthillier (until 1942).
• Munitions: Raoul Dautry.
• Air: Laurent-Eynac.
• Navy: César Campinchi (only to June 16th).
• Merchant Marine, Alphonse Rio.
• Justice: Albert Sérol.
• Information: Jean Prouvost.
• National Education: Yvon Delbos (a former Foreign Minister).
• Labour: Charles Pomaret.
• Communications: Jules Jullien.
• Public Works & Transport: Ludovic-Oscar Frossard.
• Health: Georges Pernot.
• Pensions: Albert Riviere.
• Food: Henri Queuille.
• Colonies: Louis Rollin.
• Commerce & Industry: Albert Chichery.
• Blockade: Georges Monnet.
• Under-Secretary of State for War: Colonel Charles de Gaulle.

Departure of Reynard

Paul Reynard had now become delusional about the serious state of affairs and entertained fantasies about the entire government, including the Chamber and the Senate, decamping to Africa (with an imaginary 900,000 troops), or forming a ("indefencible") 'redoubt' in Brittany, a "pipe-dream", with the obvious intention that the government could then, if necessary, flee to England.

The USA told Reynard that they were not going to join the war, and sent their best wishes. Britain was slowly pulling out (by June 16th this was complete.). The French army was shattered and torn to pieces. and its commanders were urging the government to sue for an honourable armistice. On June 15th Édouard Herriot, Leader of the Chamber announced that there was nothing to be gained at this point in time by calling a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies. Churchill had told Reynard, at Tours, that he 'understood the painful need to seek an armistice' if necessary. General Maxime Weygand told Reynard that the government could not leave France. There were thirteen members of the Government who wanted to ask for an armistice and only six who did not.

At 11 a.m. on June 16th the Cabinet met. President Lebrun took the Chair. They heard firstly from the leaders of the Chamber and the Senate and then the military. Marshal Petain announced he wished to resign from the government due to its indecisions, and the catastrophic war he had always opposed. This was refused by the President. The Cabinet broke off and resumed at 5.15 p.m. They retired again at 7.30 p.m. and resumed at 10 p.m. Reynaud having suddenly grasped that most of the government were against him and the way he had handled the crisis, formally announced his resignation, after just two and a half months in office. President Lebrun said later it was "a clear enough indication of the wishes of the majority". (One of the last actions of this Cabinet was to despatch France's gold reserves to Dakar, in Senegal, capital of French West Africa, on two warships.) Reynard recommended to President Lebrun that Marshal Pétain be invited to form a new Cabinet and left the meeting followed by Georges Mandel, Louis Marin, César Campinchi and Alphonse Rio.

President Lebrun immediately "appealed to Marshal Pétain" to form a New Cabinet, which he did that night, "displaying still further proof of his devotion to our country". Here is his first Cabinet: Ministers:

• Premier: Marshal Philippe Pétain.
• Deputy Premier: Camille Chautemps (to July 12) then Pierre Laval.
• Minister of State: Pierre Laval (from June 23)
• Minister of State: Camille Chautemps.
• Minister of State: Adrien Marquet. (from June 23)
• Foreign Affairs: Paul Baudouin.
• National Defence: General Maxime Weygand,
• War: General Louis Colson. (He, acting on behalf of the Government, telegraphed General de Gaulle who was AWOL in London, on 18 June 1940, ordering him to "return without delay".
• Air: General Maurice Pujo. (He had been sent to Spain to bring Ambassador Pétain back.)
• Marine: Admiral François Darlan.
• Justice: Charles Frémicourt.
• Interior: Charles Pomaret (only to June 26) then Adrien Marquet.
• Finance & Commerce: Yves Bouthillier.
• Colonies: Albert Riviere.
• National Education: Albert Rivaud.
• Public Works & Information: Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, a socialist and communist politician. (Resigned following the Armistice. On 23 Jan 1941 made a member of the National Council of France.)
• Transmissions: André Février (from June 23)
• French Propaganda: Jean Prouvost (from June 19 to July 10 only) (Owned a newspaper empire.)
• Agriculture & Food: Albert Chichery (In 1941, he was made a member of the National Council of France. During the Western Allies so-called liberation of France, Chichery was abducted from his property near Le Blanc on 15 August 1944 and murdered in the nearby woods by a bullet through the neck.)
• Labour & Public Health: André Février (A member of the Section francaise de l'Internationale ouvriere party.</ref>Benoist-Méchin, p.374n.</ref> (only to June 26). Then Charles Pomaret.
• Ex-servicemen & Families: Jean Ybarnegaray.

• Commissioner-General for Resupply: Joseph Frédéric Bernard (from June 18)
• Commissioner-General for National Reconstruction: Aimé Doumenc (from June 26).

• Under-Secretary of State to the Presidency of the Council (Premier): Raphael Alibert. (Said to be anti-Parliamentary and anti-Semitic. Also a traditionalist, Royalist and member of Action Française, Alibert was one of the chief ideologues of the new constitutional laws.)
• Under-Secretary of State for Refugees: Robert Schuman.
• Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: François Charles-Roux, an Imperialist, diplomat and well-travelled Ambassador. (To October.)

General Maxime Weygand remained Army Commander-in-Chief. He issued an arrest warrant for Acting-General de Gaulle, who was accused of treasonous activities and acting against the French government. De Gaulle now secretly arranged with the British Ambassador Jackson and General Spears to help him flee to England.

Werth, the great expert on France and French politics, wrote:

had a referendum been taken, say, on June 15, on whether France should try to negotiate an armistice, there is no doubt that the vast majority would have said yes.

Treachery

The Marshal had barely finished his first broadcast to the nation when treachery began: Colonel Jacquin, head of the French Purchasing Commission in the USA, of his own volition, sold all existing French contracts to the British, without the consent of the French Government. These included contracts with armament manufacturers worth billions of Francs. Edward Stettinius, chairman of the USA's War Resources Board, confirmed that the French Commission "had disposed of all the war assets of France in the USA by 3.30 a.m. on June 17th". Jacquin also assured the American that the French fleet would never be handed over to Germany. Baudouin also formally told the British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Campbell, the same thing.

USA President Roosevelt ordered the illegal freezing of all French property in the United States. He then had a message sent to the then Ambassador in France, Drexel Biddle, instructing him to speak to Admiral Darlan ordering him to prevent the French fleet from falling into 'enemy' hands. Yet the arrogant USA was still neutral! On June 18th the French government announced that "no warship must fall into enemy [meaning German] hands intact. The French Cabinet agreed also that their fleet must not be sent to British harbours. "The rallying point for the navy and aircraft is French North Africa". These decisions were wired to Corbin, the French Ambassador in London, to be presented to the British Government. Four French battleships and the same number of destroyers were presently at Alexandria, Egypt, on a courtesy visit, were ordered by the French Government to sail immediately ("swiftly") for Beirut. However, British Admiral Cunningham advised French Admiral Godfroy that he was [illegally] detaining the French ships in Alexandria and placing British officers on board each ship to ensure they could not leave. Admiral Darlan telegraphed Admiral Godfroy that the British action was "inadmissible from any point of view" and that they were making a diplomatic protest in London.

The British Consuls in the French Empire called upon the French Colonial administrators urging them to break away from the Government of France presently at Bordeaux, even offering them "financial advantages"! They universally refused. The French Cabinet unanimously declared these advances as intolerable. Meanwhile de Gaulle, now a British puppet, was making appeals via the BBC against the French Government and urging continued resistance against German forces. De Gaulle was officially struck off the French Army List on June 23rd.

At 1.30 p.m. on June 21st the liner Massilia sailed from Le Verdon to Casablanca. After all the Chamber & Senate in-fighting about decamping to French North Africa, of the two-hundred-odd members of Parliament in Bordeaux, she was carrying only 18 deputies and a single senator.

Armistice

The Cabinet agreed to use Spain as their mediator with Germany, and at 1 a.m. (17th) the Marshal sent for Senor de Lequerica, the Spanish Ambassador. A few moments later Paul Baudouin told the USA Ambassador (Biddle), that "the carnage had to stop".

On the same day, June 17th, the Premier of France, Marshal Pétain, on behalf of the Cabinet, publicly announced by wireless that France would ask for an armistice. .

Meanwhile, the Armistice was being discussed by the French and German delegations. The Armistice was signed on June 22nd to take effect on June 24th. Marshall Pétain broadcasted to the nation:

The Terms of the armistice are hard; but at least honour has been saved. No-one will use our planes and our Navy.....The Government remains free; and France will [continue to] be administered by Frenchmen only. Now a new order begins.

Other observers present stated:

The French listened to his words with deep emotion. All over the country, in the towns and on the roads, the cry went up: 'It's over! It's over! The nightmare is over!' The news swept through France. Crowds of refugees congregated round public buildings to cheer the Marshal. People stood on their doorsteps, weeping, while a flood of fervour and gratitude surged out to the illustrious old man who had, by assuming power, assumed the grief of the entire nation.

The ordinary Frenchman was stunned by the catastrophe.....He was furious against those who had endeavored to flee, whether to England, Africa or America. To quit the country in her dire distress seemed to him cowardly, a flight from incurred responsibilities. The same ordinary Frenchman rallied to Petain not only because he was a venerable figure, but chiefly because he had remained in the country, in position.....the highest form of patriotism.

At 11 a.m. that day Churchill broadcast a fierce attack on the French Government. It contained major factual inaccuracies and lies. "London was now prepared to use any possible means to discredit the French Government". That was followed at 6 p.m. by another similar broadcast by the now renegade de Gaulle, who had fled France. Writing in his book Journal de la France, Alfred Fabre-Luce, sneers at de Gaulle:

telling us through the English microphone that he was the 'leader of all the Free French' and inviting his countrymen to join in an 'international brigade', now in England's service.

Jean Monnet, head of the economic delegation to Britain, wrote to de Gaulle:

I consider that it would be a great mistake to form an organization in Britain that might be viewed in France as an authority set up abroad under the protection of Britain.......an attempt at resuscitation cannot at present come from London. It would strike the French people...as a movement protected by Britain, inspired by her own interests and, in consequence, doomed to a failure that would make subsequent efforts at recovery more difficult....

On this day, June 22nd, the British Government as well as those of Canada and South Africa (but not the U.S.A.) broke off diplomatic relations with the Government of France, and their Ambassadors and embassies staff left France. The following day a most honourable armistice was signed with Italy.

A cease-fire of all hostilities between France and Germany and Italy took place on June 24th at 12.35 a.m. on all fronts. On June 30th the German armistice commission reiterated their explicit consent that the French fleet could be stationed outside the German occupation zone.

The Death of the Third Republic

As with the Kings of Belgium & Denmark, the overwhelming majority of the French government were unwilling to leave France and abandon their people to their fate. The hopelessly discredited Third Republic was another issue.

On July 9th the Chamber of Deputies met in the morning to examine the draft Resolution for the revision of the constitutional laws. The leader of the Chamber, Eduoard Herriot, made a rallying call "Let us all rally round the Marshal!" The next day the National Assembly voted by 569 votes to 80 to give all powers to the Government of the Republic under the authority and signature of Marshal Pétain to promulgate in one or more acts a new Constitution of the French State. This Constitution shall safeguard the rights of work, the family, and the country.

This was passed the following day and the French Third Republic was ended.

See also

• Causes of World War I
• Treaty of Versailles
• Causes of World War II
• The French State

References

• Werth, Alexander, The Twilight of France 1933–1940, Fertig, New York, 1966 (1942 reprint).