French Socialism Doomed, Predicts Newsman Bethoin

"Socialists cannot stage a comeback in France," Georges Bethoin, French journalist and veteran of four years in the resistance movement, told members of the Radcliffe UN Council last night.

Do Gaulle may become another Louis Napoleon, Bethoin conceded to a questioner, but added, "the De Gaullists are the only alternative to Communism."

Bethoin traced the roots of Communist strength to the days of the German occupation. "The Communist Party was the only group that had previously existed as an underground organization, and consequently had tremendous political and military power," he asserted.

French resistance was of a military and nationalist nature in the North of France, but more political in the Vichy-controlled sector, Bethoin said, then linking this phenomenon with the concentration of present Communist strength in southern France.