terminated a vigorous campaign which has greatly preoccupied the Republic during the last few weeks. In the last election of May 1932 9,652,194 electors voted out of a total electorate of 11,561,751. This high percentage of polled votes has progressively advanced from 1881 onwards. Clemenceau's contention that universal suffrage would be a plaything of which the country would Jsoon tire has been remarkably refuted. In 1932 political theories found careful exposition at the candidates' hands and were eagerly examined-by the electors, Since that date a sue-cession of economic crises has aMicted France in common with other coun-ries, Social and economic: ssties have therefore come to the fore, Added {0 this change is another, Among the 10,000,000 voters who will elect 605 representatives are two unknown factors: the young people and the peasantry. "'The present electorate will comprise about 1,000,000 youn people who have not previously exercised their vole. There is nething. new in this: it emerges from the natural operation of the passage of yearz, but observers hold that there is a new element in the economic conditions which has made the young. elector acutely conscious of the prob-tem of unemployment. It is expected that few of them will abstain from recording their voles, The rural' classes—covering over 40 million—give about 4% million electors of Whom about one million are daily labourers, another million salaried employees and the remainder, 2% million, peasant-proprietors "of farmers," Unemployment in the 3ural districts has not been so pressing a problem as in the towns, but the cultivator has been greatly affected: cly the economic vicissitudes of the: moment. Even assuming that he is able to obtain twice as much for his produce than in the past, he has Tuefully to take into account the fact] that his purchases of essential commodities have to be made at five times, the previous figure, The rural vote is a baMing factor in the situation. Itssize makes the enigma still more significant in_its possible effect on the results. Generally the prophets have indicated their belief that there will be a definite swing to the left and that the new Parliament will be strongly inclined toward communism, in the French sense of that political creed, How far the right elements will carry the young voters Is a matter of conjecture,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.