Paris, Jan. 4.
It must now be clear to Frenchmen that they are being required to pay a heavy price for their comparative immunity from taxation during the early stages of the war, Immense borrowings, not guaranteed by anything like a corresponding increase in the national revenue, are now producing a terrible bill.in the shape of monetary depreciation.
The pound sterling keeps well over 40 francs. It now costs 192 French francs to buy 100 Swiss francs, and the loss in exchange with Spain, the United States, Holland, Scandinavia, ete., is also very great. This state of things is not due to the trade balance. During the last six months France actually sold more goods to Spain and Switzerland than she imported from those countries, and yet she continues to lose more and more on exchange. The only explanation seems to be a lack of confidence in the financial world that France really means to make the effort necessary to redeem the vast quantity of paper money she has put into circulation.
The Government which is just. about to retire from office has at. last made proposals to deal with difficulties which ought to have been resolutely grasped long ago. A new loan is to be raised to consolidate the floating debt. Railway goods and passenger rates are to be increased. Large additional taxation is being planned. The bread subsidy is to be cancelled, and the public will have to pay about 60 per cent. more for its bread. The announcement of these reforms has had no effect on exchange rates, because the world of finance wants acts and not promises from a debtor, however large his potential assets may be, and it remains to be seen whether the new Government will proceed on the same lines and whether Parliament will vote adequate measures for raising sufficient revenue.
It also remains to be seen how the country will adapt itself to heavier taxation and a higher cost of living. There may be disturbances and a sentiment of revolt against the burden. People will ask themselves why victorious France should go on for some years acting as banker to the defeated enemy. It is to be hoped that the good sense of the French people will tell them that Germany, too, needs time to recover, and that it does not pay to force a debtor into bankruptcy if there is ground for believing that he will eventually pay off the instalments of what he owes,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.