The measure is purely a protec: tive one; and the reasons for it from the French point of view, he said, are €ven more. imperative thin those which led the British Government to increase the Customs dues on French wines, which M. Isaac, who fills the same position boce as the President of the Board of Trade in England, frankly recognized as due solely to revenue-raising considerations. ""We have been compelled," he said, "to stop the importation of really unnecessary goods, such as pearls, lace, and feathers, in order to try 10 reduce the rate of exchange which is so. terribly handicapping France at present.
wing to the strain put upon us by the war we are obliged to buy many things of prime—necessity, such as coal and wheat, from abroad,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.