The chronic difficulty of making both ends meet is becoming so acute that the Finance Minister, M. Rouvier, has, reported, made up his mind to ask for an important change in the fiscal system. This is nothing less than the abolition of the privilege' granted to farmers and landowners to distin a certain quantity of alcohol from their own fruit without paying duty. These distillers are called "douilleurs clu era" and are entitled to produce 20 litres of proof spirit for their own use, the surplus, if any, being taxed at the rate of about 7s. per gallon. There being no check except surprise visits fraud is easy and general, and it is estimated that 80 per cent of the distillers evade payment by declaring less alcohol than they have actually manufactured. The abolition of their privilege would probably bring in about a million sterling every year but it will not be easy to in-duco Parliament to vote the proposal. 'The "bouilleurs clu cru" are numerous in every part of France except the North-east, and have hitherto repulsed all attacks' on their position by previous Finance Ministers. The Government will find itself on dangerous ground if it really presses the matter, but money must be raised somehow. When we find current expenses being cut down to such an extent that the battleships and cruis sers of the Mediterranean squadron are no longer to be allowed to go out on short cruises for target practice, we may safely conclude that the national finances are in a bad way, for the time being. This, of course, does not imply that Franco's credit is compromised but meroly that Parliament does not know how to manage the business of the country. There can be no real improvement till deputies are deprived of their right of proposing additional expenditure.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.