CLAUDEL Paul (1868-1955). L. A. S., Paris, 19 December 1951, to General de Gaulle; 2 pages in-4 at his address 11, Boulevard Lannes. Protest against the alliance between the R. P. F. and the Communists. "My General, You are aware of the confidence and hope that I have never ceased to place in the liberator of France since 18 June 1940, from whom all good Frenchmen have the right to expect a great deal. It is therefore with deep sorrow, or rather with real scandal, that I see the party that claims your name regularly uniting its votes in the House with those of the Communist party, so that one could speak of a veritable amalgam. You know as well as I do that the Communist Party is not a French party. It is a gang which receives its instructions from abroad to do our country every possible harm. The duty of every honest man is therefore to oppose by all means men who openly declare themselves to be the enemies not only of France, but of all morality, of all religion, of everything that constitutes the basis of civilised humanity. He was outraged by a recent vote on "measures of public salvation" and had "felt a real shame, or rather deep indignation, to see the party that bears your name vote for a hypocritical motion, which in reality concealed a definitive adjournment. We saw the 120 Gaullist MPs, with the exception of three courageous men, commit themselves, flag unfurled, under the command of the traitor Jacques Duclos! What reasons of low politics and incomprehensible strategy can justify such a scandal? And he threatened to resign from the party... At the top, an autograph note from de Gaulle: "I have prepared a reply - before sending it, please ask M. Malraux to talk to me about it".