Camille Chautemps

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Camille Chautemps (1 February 1885 โ€“ 1 July 1963) was a French Radical politician of the French Third Republic who was elected a Deputy for the Loire-et-Cher.

Chautemps was briefly three times Prime Minister: 21 Feb to 2 March 1930 (10 days); 26 Nov 1933 to 30 Jan 1934 (just over 2 months); and 22 June 1937 to 13 March 1938 (two cabinets); and sometime Minister of the Interior. He had, during the Spanish Civil War been a 'non-interventionist at any price' ('I have two sons of military age and I will not let them die for Spain'[1] ) but as Premier changed his tune when it came to Czechoslovakia. In the debates over the 1938 crisis he had stated, in the great Chamber debate of February, that France fully supported the League of Nations and "resolved to uphold and respect all the treaties [against Germany] with which we are linked to friendly nations" [in Eastern Europe]. Yvon Delbos, his Foreign Secretary, went further, saying that "our obligations to Czechoslovakia will be faithfully observed". Chautemps was then asked "How are the Government going to help Austria?" March 11th provided the answer: 'We cannot help Austria'. As four days before the Anschluss, Chautemps quarrelled with the socialists over the question of plenary powers; and without waiting for a Chamber vote he resigned. His latest Cabinet had lasted just two months.[2]. For the next month France was without a government.[3]

Chautemps subsequently served from April 1938 to May 1940 as Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinets of ร‰douard Daladier and Paul Reynaud. Daladier's Cabinet had also retained Georges Bonnet whom Chautemps had appointed Finance Minister in June 1937. Bonnet was opposed to the so-called cordon sanitaire and sought rapprochement with Germany. By mid-September these two, along with Anatole de Monzie[4], and Charles Pomaret[5], had changed position and no longer made any secret of their belief that it was not worth while risking a war for Czechoslovakia, basically now agreeing with Pierre-ร‰tienne Flandin, Joseph Caillaux[6], Jean Mistler[7][8] and others whom Chautemps had previously violently attacked in the Chamber as "defeatists".[9]

After Reynard resigned on 16 June 1940, Chautemps remained in the Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister to Marshal Philippe Pรฉtain. Chautemps was one of the Cabinet who firmly believed France had to have an Armistice with Germany.

Sources

  1. โ†‘ Werth, Alexander, The Twilight of France 1933-1940. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1942; reprint by Howard Fertig Inc., New York, 1966, p.221.
  2. โ†‘ Werth, Alexander, France and Munich, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1939; reprinted by Howard Fertig Inc., New York, 1969, pps:34, 60-2, 254.
  3. โ†‘ Werth, 1942/1966, p.157.
  4. โ†‘ Deputy for Lot, a department in the Occitanie region of France.
  5. โ†‘ Deputy for Lozรจre from 1928 to 1942.
  6. โ†‘ Whose opposition to World War I led to his imprisonment for treason in 1920. He became Deputy for the Sarthe.
  7. โ†‘ Deputรฉ for Aude. From 1936 he chaired the Foreign Affairs Commission.
  8. โ†‘ Werth, 1942/1966, p.219.
  9. โ†‘ Werth, 1939/1969, pps:58-60, 252.

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