The financial editor of the "Journal des Débats,"" who puts forward the bankers' view of the matter, remarks that there can be no chance of success when, as in the case in point, not only the capital and reserves are swallowed up, but the losses have absorbed a large part of the funds due to third parties and when what is loft of the assets is represented by scenrities or claims which cannot readily be turned into cash. Sonfething might have been done at the beginning of the trouble, but the situation was allowed to go from bad to worse. As matters stand, it would take several hundred million frances to make good the losses, repay the depositors and reconstitute the capital. It was clearly impossible for the banks to advance such large sums. To do so would have been to run counter to the interests of their sharcholders, especially as it was by no means certain that the operation would be successful.
The idea of Government assistance was abandoned, even by those who suggested it, as soon as it was realized that a special Act of Parliament would be necessary. Another expedient was to float a Chinese loan, part of which would be used by the Chinese Government to help the Banque Industrielle out of its difficulties. This idea was as impracticable as the others. The Paris money market has quite enough to do to feed the numerous loans for the reconstitution of the devastated regions, and there would be obvious objections to asking the public to take up a loan intended to meet the losses of a private undertaking. The report that the French Government refused permission to float a Chinese loan in Paris is untrue, for the excellent reason that the Chinese Government has not asked for any such permission. Under these circumstances the failure of the Banque Industrielle was inevitable.
. Bayx's Mvruops Denovuncep.
It is regrettable but by no means so disastrous, from the national point of view, as has been represented in some quarters. The bank's credit' abroad was destroyed months ago. Tt had increased its turnover to an enormous extent during the past few years, but that is nov very difficult if you make up your mind to do business at any cost and do not look too closely into the solvency of your clients. The result shows that the methods of the Banque Industrielle were bad. In regard to the concessions which the Banque was said to have obtained from the Chinese Government, it accomplished nothing except the floating of the so-called industrial loan, in Paris, which was to have been used for constructing the port at Pukow. As a matter of fact the work has not even been begun. Part of the money raised by the loan was handed over to the Chinese Government. The rest should have remained in the coffers of the Banque Industrielle, which was to have used this money for the service of the loan, but it did not even pay the first coupon, which became due March 1, War's Errecr on Poruration.
Provisional results of the census taken in France on March 6 have just been published. They are called provisional because they have not undergone final official scrutiny and are not the figures accepted for Parliamentary and other legal purposes, but they are sufficiently accurate for all ordinary calculations, The decrease in comparison with the last complete census, taken in 1911, amounts to over two millions, and is the natural result of the war but is not in reality so great as it appears, inasmuch as the officers and men of the army and navy who were abroad on March 6 are not included. The grand total of 37,499,304 is made up of 36,084,266 French citizens and 1,415,128 foreigners, The percentage of foreigners in the population of France is thus 3.77. The department with the greatest number of foreigners is the Seine (233,849) but the largest proportion is in the Alpes Maritimes, which has two foreigners to every five French. At Yhe other extreme is the Lozére, where the foreign population amounts to 2, all told. Only two departments—the Seine and tha Nord—possess ® population exceeding a million, the former having 4.411.446 and the latter 1,788,578. The large centres have continued to gain at the expense of the agricultural districta.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.