Eighty years ago two long-standing French institutions come on the scene

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Jean Monnet, the first commissioner of the "Plan", submitted proposals to implement the Plan's goal of re-establishing France's economy and improving standards of living. The Commission had been established by General de Gaulle. The Plan rested on collaboration between unions and businesses, guided but not controlled, by the state. It provided a model for the French economy which still functions today. Its unspoken goal to was to develop a lead over Germany; Monnet proposed a partial de-industrialisation of Germany with factories being transferred entirely to France and some being dismantled entirely. 

 Georges Bidault was elected as the first prime minister of the French Fourth Republic. His government was emblematic of the shifting focus of the Republic and the inherent instability of its institutions. It had Communists and Socialists in senior ministries as well as Bidault's own centre-right MRP. Bidault's government only lasted a few months (like most in the Fourth Republic) but he was to recur in many of its successors.

The British ration of fresh milk was cut to two and a half pints per adult per week from three. This was a regular seasonal move but it was brought in two weeks earlier. Coming, as it did, on the announcement of bread rationing, it was full proof of Britain's food crisis.

 


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