FRANCE 999 



tactics and brandished the bogey of clericalism. On February 24th MM. Malvy and 

 Paul Meunier made an interpellation on the way in which the Law of Con- 



mg XI flan rf 



resigns. gregations was being carried out and reduced the Ministerial majority to 

 6. M. Briand, considering that he could not carry on the Government in 

 such precarious conditions, resigned on the 2yth; and he was succeeded by the Monis 1 

 Ministry (March 2-June 23, 1911). 



In the crisis which followed M. Briand's resignation, the President of the Republic 

 thought to meet the case by summoning the leaders of the Radical-Socialist minority 

 which had come into collision with the previous Cabinet. M. Monis did, 

 Ministry. ^ * s true, try to obtain the co-operation of a few moderates such as M. 

 Raymond Poincare 2 and M. Ribot, 3 but he met with refusals, and ended 

 by surrounding himself with his own party. He took the Ministry of the Interior him- 

 self, gave Finance to M. Joseph Caillaux, 4 Foreign Affairs to M. Cruppi, War to .M. 

 Berteaux 5 and the Navy to M. Delcasse. 6 As far as men were concerned it was a com- 

 plete change. The political programme on the other hand was scarcely altered at 

 all (measures to prevent the recurrence of railway strikes, income tax, and electoral 

 reform). It was the spirit that was different. This was soon seen when the second debate 

 on the re-instatement of railway servants began in April. The Prime Minister and the 

 Minister of Public Works (M. Dumont), under pressure from the Socialist groups, an- 

 nounced that they meant to break down the resistance of the railway companies. A 

 law was to be passed establishing a disciplinary council which should decide which of 

 the men should be taken back, and revise the dismissals after the strike. The bill was 

 in its preliminary stages when the Ministry fell. At the same time the Government 

 gave vigourous support to a bill making the Railway Servant Pensions Law of 1909 

 retroactive in its scope. That also came to nothing. 



The very democratic policy of the Government did not save them difficulties. 

 They had not long been in power when the Delimitation law brought on serious disturb- 

 Trouble la ances m Champagne. The object of the Delimitation decree of December 

 the Cham- 7, 1909, had been to restrict the application of the word "champagne" to 

 pagne wines grown in a certain area, namely the department of the Marne and 



districts. ,. . ', , J , ,, A . , 



some adjacent communes m the departments of the Aisne and Haute- 

 Marne. Trouble had already occurred (Nov. 1910 and Jan. 1911) in various locali- 

 ties in this region where the peasant wine-growers attributed the stagnation in the wine 

 tracTe to fraudulent methods of sale; and M. Briand had a law voted (Feb. 10, 1911) 

 to provide more precisely for that question. Agitation began again in March at other 

 points. This time it was the wine-growers of the Aube who, wanting to sell their wines 

 to the champagne wine-factors, as they had hitherto done, demanded that their area 

 should be included within the champagne zone. As the Government hesitated and took 

 refuge behind the jurisdiction of the Council of State, the Aube wine-growers outside the 

 limits indulged in deplorable demonstrations; those of the Marne, hearing that the De- 

 limitation Law was to be repealed, rose in their turn, and on April nth-iath there 

 was pillage and incendiarism at Ay and Epernay. Quiet was only restored after a 

 promise that all attempt at delimitation should be given up. 



On May 2ist, while watching the start of aeroplanes for the Paris-Madrid race, 

 both the Premier and the Minister of War were struck down by one of the machines. 



M. Berteaux was killed on the spot. M. Monis was grievously injured, 



kut ^ e continued in office and gave the War portfolio to General Goiran. 

 Berteaux? The Cabinet found great difficulty in administering the Old Age Pensions 



Law; and their troubles were increased by anxiety over the situation in 

 Morocco, and the necessity of sending an expedition to Fez in April-May (see under 



1 Antoine Emmanuel Ernest Monis; b. 1846; minister of Justice 1899-1902; senator. 



2 EL 1860; see E. B. xxi, 892. 



3 B. 1842; see E,. B. xxiii, 285. 



4 B. 1863; minister of Finance, 1899-1902 and 1906. 

 5 B. 1852. 



C B. 1852; see E. B. vii, 953. 



