48
RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES
out of 19,000,000 voters were members of any party. The UNR membership (then
estimated at 60,000) was as large as that of any party other than the Communist
Party, then estimated at 300,000. La Politique en Fiance (Paris, 1964), p. 106.
Though in its propaganda the UNR has claimed as many as 150,000 members
(“Pour une France Moderne”), Claude Labbé, UNR Secrétaire Général Adjoint
pour !'Organisation et l’implantation, told me on August 19, 1965, that membership
was then about 100,000. Actual paid membership at any one time is probably slightly
less (see Chariot, L'U.N.R., p. 116).
133. AP 1959, p. 89; and Macridis and Brown, The De Gaulle Republic, pp. 294-
295.
134. Rémond, in Esprit, No. 2 (February, 1963), pp. 309-311.
135. Chariot, “Note sur les dirigeants de ΓU.N.R.," pp. 1-3. Chariot explores the
party’s oligarchical character in detail in L'U.N.R., especially Chapters 8, 9, and 12.
136. LM, November 26-27, 1967.
137. Interview with Léo Hamon, a member of the Commission Politique, July
19, 1965.
138. Quoted in France-Observateur, March 23, 1961, Of course, the power of
congresses is not much greater in British parties, as R. T. McKenzie shows in his
British Political Parties (New York, 1963).
139. BaumePs predecessors: Roger Frey, Albin Chalandon, Jacques Richard, Roger
Dusseaulx, and Louis Terrenoire.
140. Most of the information presented here on internal party organization is
taken from interviews with Claude Labbé, then UNR Secrétaire Général Adjoint
pour TOrganisation et !‘Implantation (August 19, 1965) and with Bernard Le Calloch,
then Director of the UNR-UDT national Section de Documentation (July 21, 1965).
141. Interviews, Labbé and Le Calloch. The rebellion in Herrault is described in
Brigitte Gros, “Pour qui sont ces statuts?” L'Express, January 30, 1964. See also
L’Express, November 21, 1963. The Gard dissolution is reported in Combat, May
11, 1963.
142. LM, February 22, 1968.
143. Jn a circular for intraparty use, quoted in Aux Ecoutes, June 24, 1965, p. 11.
144. Roger Frey, interview, July 8, 1965.
145. For a lively description of the political style of Chaban-Delmas, see Pierre
Viansson-Ponté, Les Gaullistes (Paris, 1963), pp. 87-92.
146. Interviews with Jean Valleix, UNR Departmental Secretary for Gironde, and
with Robert Vironneau, an able young mayor of the town of Guide in the district
of Biaye. Bordeaux, July 28, and July 29, 1965.
147. Joël Le Theule1 interview, Sablé, July 7, 1965.
148. Chariot, L'U.N.R., pp. 129-136.
149. As quoted in LM, March 2, 1965. In an interview, July 8, 1965, Frey seemed
to have the impression that British and American parties were fundamentally alike
in their organization, and that both were more highly organized and disciplined than
the UNR.
150. He discussed it with Michel Debré and Jacques Chaban-Delmas. (Interview
with Frey, July 8, 1965.) For speculation in the press on friction between Frey and
Baumel (much of it probably inaccurate), see Claude Krief, “Un barren dans Ie
vent,” Le Nouvel Observateur, March 6, 1965; Hector de Galand, “De Gaulle lâche
TU.N.R.," Le Nouvel Observateur, March 18, 1965; and LM, November 26, 1963
(at the Nice Assises').