Budget Decrees
Monday afternoon, July 15. The afternoon sun came through the windows and bathed the long room in summer sunlight. A table ran down the center of the room. The room, on the main floor of the Hôtel Matignon, overlooked the park with its long lawns stretching away into the distance. Madame Lambert, her back to the windows, walked along the table neatly boxing little piles of documents into precise stacks. Two other women, redactrices, trailed behind carrying extra copies of the documents. Next, Madame Lambert formed a second row of documents near the edge of the table. Now and again she would whisper instructions to one of her assistants, who would murmur, “Yes, Madame.”
The secrétaire général poked his head through the door and watched the quiet efficiency underway. He asked, “Madame Lambert, are you ready?”
“Yes, Monsieur le Secrétaire Général.”
She turned to her two assistants and said, “Thank you.” The two women left.
Presently Premier Laval and the finance minister with several aides came into the room.
“All is ready,” said the secrétaire général.
Premier Laval nodded in acknowledgement and then turned to the finance minister. “Let me present Madame Lambert, our chef de bureau.”
The finance minister nodded by way of greeting.
Premier Laval turned to Madame Lambert and asked, “Ready?”
“Yes, Monsieur le Premier.”
Premier Laval turned to the finance minister and explained, “The staff of the administration centrale has prepared the public announcements for each decree, which are on top of each stack. The decrees are underneath the announcements. Twenty-three decrees; twenty-three stacks.”
Premier Laval looked up at Madame Lambert. “I am right in this, Madame Lambert?”
“Yes, Monsieur le Premier.”
The premier continued, “The secrétaire général and his staff have carefully checked that the public announcements agree with the decree laws. The decree laws will be voted on by the Chamber of Deputies upon their return in October.”
The premier turned to the secrétaire general. “Correct, Monsieur le Secrétaire Général?”
“Correct, Monsieur le Premier,” came the reply.
The premier explained to the finance minister, “Your staff should take one set of both the public announcements and the decree laws with you. Your implementing regulations must be in strict accordance with the announcements and decrees.”
The finance minister gravely nodded and looked at several of his aides, who signaled their understanding.
Premier Laval then summarized. “As you know, the cabinet will meet at the Quay d’Orsay tomorrow morning to consider the decree laws. Afterwards, a formal cabinet meeting will be held at the Élysée Palace to approve the decree laws and the President of the Republic will sign them. The announcements will be given to the press at that time.”
The finance minister asked, “Do you think the cabinet will make changes?”
The premier replied, “Yes, compromise is always necessary. But they shall require only minor revision. If you change too much, the whole arrangement collapses.”
The finance minister nodded.
Premier Laval then shifted the conversation. “The importance of the impartial implementation and administration of the decree laws cannot be over-emphasized.”
The finance minister replied, “The ministry has already begun its work with that goal in mind.”
The premier smiled and replied, “Good. In that regard, please have your ministry forward to Madame Lambert each regulation and directive required to implement the decrees as they become available.”
The finance minister was somewhat startled by the premier’s request.
Premier Laval soothingly added, “The entire cabinet will be reassured of the fairness and impartiality of the administration of the decree laws by the Matignon’s involvement.”
The finance minister nodded.
Premier Laval looked down the table at the finance ministry staff and said lightly, “It is a rare inconsistency that gets past the eye of Madame Lambert.” He smiled broadly. The finance staff smiled thinly.
The premier looked around the room and concluded, “That will be all.” He turned to the finance minister. “Until tomorrow.”
Early the next morning in a hall paralleling the Salon de l’Horloge—the Clock Room—on the first floor of the Quai d’Orsay, Madame Lambert and Madame Bardoux arranged copies of the decrees around the immensely long cabinet table. Premier Laval came in with the secrétaire général at his elbow. Behind came groups of ministers chatting amongst themselves.
Turning to the secrétaire général, Laval said, “If you and some aides could take chairs behind me…”
The secrétaire général promptly replied, “Yes, Monsieur le Premier.”
Laval then turned to Madame Lambert. “If you could take a chair at the other end of the room…”
Madame Lambert replied, “Yes, Monsieur le Premier.”
Laval then turned to Madame Bardoux. “You best work upstairs with Secretary-General Léger for tomorrow’s conference with Monsieur Avenol.” Avenol was the permanent secretary of the League of Nations in Geneva. “He will have the latest developments from London for devising an arrangement with Italy about Ethiopia.”
Laval then explained to the secrétaire général and Madame Lambert, “A satisfactory arrangement with Italy is of the greatest urgency. If next week’s meeting in Geneva does not succeed, it will be a grave blow to the League of Nations.”
Both the secrétaire général and Madame Lambert nodded in understanding. Madame Bardoux turned to leave, stopped and touched Madame Lambert on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Madame Lambert nodded in understanding.
The cabinet meeting began.
Towards noon, Premier Laval stood. “Messieurs, lunch will be served in the dining room. We will resume after lunch.” The premier headed for the door leading towards the dining room followed by the cabinet ministers. After the cabinet ministers came the secrétaire général. Madame Lambert had a whispered conversation with him and added, “I will have lunch with Madame Bardoux.” Madame Lambert walked out into the hallway leading to the staircase and went upstairs to Madame Bardoux’s office.
As Madame Lambert took a chair in Madame Bardoux’s office, she said, “Most of the ministers had little advance knowledge of the decrees, so the morning was taken up with presentations by various ministers on the deflation program.”
Madame Bardoux asked, “Where does the meeting go from here?”
Madame Lambert replied, “The major issue is asking the low-paid government workers to take the same percentage cut as the higher paid civil servants. The Radical ministers object.”
Madame Bardoux said thoughtfully, “Possibly Premier Laval has carried the concept of equality of sacrifice too far.”
Madame Lambert responded, “He probably already knows that. He would want some areas where he could compromise with the Radical ministers. He seems completely assured that agreement will be reached this afternoon.”
A receptionist brought in lunches and the two women ate at a small conference table in the office.
Later in the afternoon, with the discussion by the ministers continuing without decision, Premier Laval stood up and said, “Messieurs, let us take a break. Dinner will be served in the dining room.”
Premier Laval walked around the cabinet table towards the entrance and stopped alongside Madame Lambert, the cabinet ministers backing up behind him in a jam, and said, in a voice that could be just overheard, “Madame Lambert, if you could stay this evening, we will finish tonight no matter how long it takes. Then the cabinet will adjourn to the Élysée Palace to meet with the President of the Republic. At that time, you can take the marked up copies back to the Hôtel de Matignon. The secrétaire général will accompany us to the Élysée; he is well connected on that side of the river.”
“Yes, Monsieur le Premier,” and she stood asi
de and watched the premier and the ministers parade through the door towards the dining room. She spoke briefly with the secrétaire général and then walked towards the stairway and the ascent to Madame Bardoux’s office.
Entering Madame Bardoux’s office, Madame Lambert smiled by way of greeting and said, “On the way to dinner, the premier stopped beside me at the doorway, stacking the cabinet up behind him like an evening traffic jam. He loudly whispered to me that the cabinet would finish tonight.”
Madame Bardoux laughed. “I just wish that foreign affairs would yield so simply.”
Astonished, Madame Lambert said in a rising voice, “Simply?”
“Yes, you will reach a decision. But tomorrow with the permanent secretary of the League of Nations we face the Italy dilemma again.”
Madame Lambert said, now sympathetically, “Yes, I gather it is a real conundrum.”
“Yes, we need to keep British support—in the last instance, they are our only real ally—and sustain the credibility and prestige of the League of Nations without driving Italy into Hitler’s arms.”
Madame Lambert said, almost absently, “Ethiopia hardly seems worth it.”
Madame Bardoux summed up. “Yes, many believe that. But the British have become real sticklers for principle on this issue.”
Madame Lambert sighed as she thought to herself that standing up to Hitler should be the principle.
The receptionist brought in two dinners and set them on the conference table. The women chatted while eating what was a very superb meal. The chef at the Quai d’Orsay was four star, thought Madame Lambert.
With midnight approaching, Premier Laval looked down the table; the ministers sat quiet. The premier stood up. “Alors. Very well, then. We shall go to the Élysée Palace and present the program to the President of the Republic.”
Down the table heads nodded in weary agreement. The premier stood up, turned to the secrétaire général and said, “Please arrange to take the necessary documents for signature to the Élysée,” and looking down the room at Madame Lambert and Madame Bardoux, he added, “Have Madame Lambert take the set approved by the cabinet back to the Matignon.”
“Yes, Monsieur le Premier,” replied the secrétaire général.
The premier turned, walked around the standing cabinet ministers, and towards the tall doors at the far end of the room. He smiled and winked at Madame Lambert and Madame Bardoux as he walked out. The ministers followed, a little bit more bedraggled than their now energized premier.
After the last minister departed, the secrétaire général came up to Madame Lambert and Madame Bardoux and said, “As you heard, I will be going with the premier. My car will take you to the Matignon and then it will take both of you ladies home.”
Madame Lambert answered, “Yes, Monsieur le Secrétaire Général.”
The secrétaire général waved to several of his aides to follow with the decrees and walked out the door to the cars waiting outside.
Madame Lambert turned to Madame Bardoux. “Thank you so much for staying, Suzanne. We must be going.”