The exchange value of the franc has declined about 10 per cent. since the Washington failure. "All pur: chases abroad of raw materials and other commodities must therefore cost more, and the Budget estimates must necessarily be unreliable, a everything the Government requires for the public services must be more expensive than at present, Purthermore, the national balance sheet cannot represent the real sit-nation, as it makes no. provision for the repayment of the money due to. France's creditors. The issue of more notes would inevitably' be followed by further depreciation of the frane and an increase in the cost of living. We thus pear to be in a vicious circle, and opinion is greatly divided on the question of finding a way out.
At the Radical Congress just held Nice, M. Caillaux opposed a capital levy, which is the great pan-coa of the advanced Radicals and Socialists, but the Congress voted resolution in favour of a "specical contribution on all forms of fortune"—an. elastic phrase which may mean anything. "We are now waiting to see-how M. Caillaux will interpret it: There were even rumours yesterday that he intended to resign in: view of the improbability of finding sufficient support for remedies of '3 more grade and less. dangerous nature, 'The realirodb of: the trouble is to.be-found, I. béieve; in' the chology of the French peop:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.