Far more interesting to France is the question of reparations. As M. Poincaré says, the essential condition of the restoration of Europe is the restoration of France, and though Germany's position may be unpleasant, it is not nearly as painful as that of the victorious country whose territory was invaded and wantonly laid waste.
"We are compelled to write on the frontispiece of the Genoa Conference," he adds, "that when we have secured respect for our own rights, we shall be only too pleased to do all we can towards the restoration of of' 27 countries." In other words, France, as represented by M. Poincaré, believes that charity begins at home, and he has instructed the French delegates not to accept any new principle without referring to Paris. The French delegation will be withdrawn if the Conference goes too far.
The Premier's attitude is in conformity with the conviction, which seems to be held by a large body of opinion in Paris, that Germany will not pay until she is absolutely forced to do so, that she will wriggle until the last moment and that nothing but trouble can result from any endeavour to let her down easily. There is no sign that Germany's experiences between 1914 and 1918 have sickened her of war. It remains the great national industry. She has done much more harm to her enemies than she has herself sustained and, so long as she can succeed in escaping payment for the damage, or can keep the Allies quiet by giving them ridiculously small sums on account, she has a good deal of reason for thinking that she won the war.
Germany anp War.
Men who lived in Germany before the war and have friends in duced to 100,000 men, the reg-mental organizations have been|severe blow to its reputation for preserved under the names of clubs or societies, and the 150,000 armed police practically bring the strength of the military forces up to 250,000 men. When the Control Commission is withdrawn, there will be nothing to prevent Germany from manufacturing all the aeroplanes and other war material she needs. These ominous facts help to show why France attaches so little importance to the Genoa Conference. To attempt the economic reconstruc. tion of Europe under present conditions seems to her like beginning to rebuild a burnt-out house before the fire is extinguished.
Breacu or Promise Law.
Breach of promise of marriage actions are rare in France, partly, it may be, through fear of ridicule and partly on account of the unsentimental manner in which marriage is regarded. justice will grant damages to a girl if she has) been put to actual expense in preparing for a marriage broken off by her fiance, but it declines to estimate in terms of cash the injury to her feelings.
An action was brought recently against a French officer who became engaged in 1916, corresponded with the-girl for three' years, and then wrote to her father: "The war has completely changed my views. Why? I really do not know, but I am perfectly sincere in saying that the more I think about marriage the less attraction it has for me. After full reflexion, I feel sure it will be better not to run the risk of destroying Henriette's happiness by union with a man who does not want to marry." The father claimed Frs. 15,000 as material and moral damages and was awarded Frs. 500, the court coming to the conclusion that the gallant captain was more capricious than sincere.
A New Trrat.
This judgement, however, was given in the absence of the defendant, whose point of view, accordingly, was not represented. He afterwards moved for a new trial, which took place before the same court. After hearing beth sides, the presiding judge quashed the previous finding, his view. being that a person who has undertaken to marry is a better judge than anyone else whether he or she should adhere to the undertaking or withdraw from it before it was too late. He ordered the captain to pay the Frs. 500, not as material and moral damages but as compensation for expenses incurred by the fiancee during the three years' engagement. The French principle for those about to marry evidently is that the man has just as much right as the woman to change his mind up to. the last moment, and that it is better for the woman to remain single than to marry an unwilling husband. There is a good deal to be said for this on the score of Paris has narrowly escaped a gaiety. All dancing at cafes and restaurants was within an ace of being stopped! This calamity was threatened by the unsympathetic attitude of the Poor Law Department in attempting to collect a tax. Paris cafes and restaurants employing bands, for dancing or merely to play for the entertainment of customers, have been liable since the beginning of the year to pay a tax of 25 per cent. on their receipts—a tax which, it is needless to say, they have not failed to put on their customers' bills.
Then the Poor Law Department discovered that the law imposed an additional tax of 13 per cent., in its favour, on "dancings'—a word of recent adoption not yet thoroughly defined. Whether the legislator intended to place a regular dancing-hall on the same footing as a"tafé where people dance after tea and dinner is not at all clear.
Like all good Government departments, the Poor Law people assumed that the tax extended to the largest possible number of taxpayers, and attempted to collect it from the establishments concerned. The proprietors, who must have felt. conscious that their customers were already handing out as much as could be extracted from them, held a meeting and declared that rather than pay' the extra 13 per cent. they would dismiss the bands and cease to compete with the "dancings."
As this would have taken employment from about a thousand musicians, there was immediately a great to-do. The Poor Law administration, on being reproached' for harshness, mildly replied that it was merely doing its duty and that if the legislator did not intend the poor to have the 13 per cent. he would have said so.
Musto anp Harmony.
Finally delegates of all the parties concerned went to see the Minister of Finance, who took the intelligent view and promised that the 13 per cent. tax would not be applied. As was only fitting this question of music: thus ended—in harmony. The notices were withdrawn on the spot, and music will resume the place from which she was so nearly driven by lack of money. Parisians wonder whether any such question arises or can arise in the capital of "defeated" Germany.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.