FRANCE'S FINANCES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 9

FRANCE'S FINANCES

NEED FOR BOLD EFFORT

FEEBLE POLICY FATAL

PARIS, 18th January. .. The Finance, Minister, M. Cheron, in, introducing the Financial Bill in the Chamber of Deputies, declared that Francejs choice was between a bold effort which would save her finances or a feeble policy aggravating the situation and menacing tho national currency.

Though the peak of the crisis' seemed to have passed, the fiscal and administrative system needed remodelling. The Budget must be balanced pending reforms, after which a consolidation loan must convert the floating debt into a long-term debt.

M. Cheron said he accepted an estimate that the dciicit wouia be £84,328,000. He proposed cuts in expenditure totalling £42,608,000, taxation totalling £42,624,000, also a reduction in pensions to the extent of £4,800,000, though alottery will compensate for the ex-servicemen's cuts. Other reductions would be as previously announced. " The Government's chances of winning depend on how much ballast. M. Cheron is prepared to throw out. ■ The French Cabinet last week approved measures immediately to balance the Budget. Ministers agreed to alO per cent, cut in salaries, and also to thefollowing reductions in departmental estimates:—..Francs. War ._ 30,000,000 Marine 150,000,000 Air 200,000,000 Each other department ... 350,000,000 Civil Service salaries .... 250,000,000 Civil and military allowances 000,000,000 Income tax will be increased on salaries above £150, "with no reduction for ex-soldiers' pensions. There will bo one yearly lottery, the profits to bo.devoted to war victims.