THE AXE OF FRANCE

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 14

THE AXE OF FRANCE

GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMIES MANY PUBLIC PROTESTS. Tho cry of (he axo is heard in the land, said tho Paris correspondent of the T/ndon ‘Observer’ at the end of December. Prom every part of France, .from every department of Government the wail of protest is rising against the Government administrative economics; every Senator and Deputy has received an urgent summons from tho threatened mayors to attend what is practically an unofficial national assembly. ihariiamdiitarians refusing to be present wore warned that all local interests would he mobilised against them at the next elections. The mayors maintained that unreal economies would result from the proposed reforms, and that M. Poincare, in decreeing them, was abusing the powers given him by Parliament. While many share the mayors’ views as to the amount of money saved by the “ axe,” there was too much of a political anti-Ministerial flavor about the protests fox them to have much effect. Ministers explained that the reform scheme must be considered as a whole, that it really aimed at a great measure [of decentralisation which would bring about tho speeding up of all local government, and cut down the burden of paper under which tlio country groans. ‘‘Public economies are never very popular,” says the. correspondent, “ and the ‘ axe ’ which has fallen upon so many suh-pre feci u res and local courts ol' justice, if it has reduced tho list which all French school children are expected to know by heart during the geography lesson, has provoked loud outcries from sleepy provincial towns, where the closing of the little building which bears tho proud title of Palais de Justice over its portals will deprive tho local cafe ol several regular customers, whoso not excessive labors ns public servants allow thorn to pass the afternoon over a quiet game of manillo and a vermouth cassis. “Perhaps the decision, just announced, to reduce the number of Civil servants in another direction will bo less generally unpopular. It can, however, hardly ho expected, 1 fear, that the forthcoming suppression, of the jobs of 700 tax collectors will mean that wo shall pay any less in taxes. Ono would have thought, indeed, that this was tbe one public service in Franco .which was not overstaffed and underworked, and that the chief lesults of reducing its numbers would bo to make tho delays in the collection of tho revenue even longer than they are at present. THE STATE THEATRES. “ On the other hand, if tho public will support tho abolition of tax collectors without a murmur Franco, or at any rate Paris, would hardly tolerate another form of public economy at which certain politicians have hinted, and that is the reduction of the subsidies of tho State theatres. Even tlio boldest advocate of retrenchment would aardly dare touch tho Comedie-Frau-caiso, now in its third century of existence, with its intricate constitution of self-government, built up on successive royal, imperial, and republican decrees, and its subvention as an integral part ot that constitution. If they did tho Gomedio Would no doubt defend its rights before the Counseil d’Etat, and oven the Ministry of _ Finance would probably have to give in. “ But there are tho Opera, tho Opera Comiqnc, and tho Odeon, which are not self-governing, but in which a manager appointed by the State and receiving a subsidy from it runs the theatre under his own direction, and makes a profit if ho can. These theatres are, perhaps, more vulnerable, but it is pointed out that in each case tho manager would have a ground for action against tho State il one of tho principal conditions of his agreement were suddenly suppressed or even modified. “ Opinion was also exercised about that other form of economy which was to enforce the reduction of private as well as public expenditure. The twocourse meal m restaurants seems to he accepted without much protest,’ 1 said the writer. “Alter all, you can make it up in hors d’oeuvro if you aro hungry; and is there not a certain restaurant in Pans famous for its hors d’oeuvro which has been obliged to put up a notice in its dining room to the olfcct that meals consisting of hors d’ocnivre only will not be allowed? There has, nevertheless, been a little trouble about wedding breakfasts or ‘ lunches.’ as they arc called. Nobody can believe that tho authorities really want to diminish tho splendor of tho marriage festivities of the petite bonrgcoise, where tho whole party starts off in a closed charabanc upholstered in white and fitted with a piano, to cat an interminable meal m a suburban restaurant. THE PRICE OF TRIPE. “There has also been some surprise that tho sumptuary Jaws have done so little to bring down tbe price of food. There is tripe, for instance. Now tripe, cooked 510 w... in a baker’s oven for at least half a ‘ a la mode de Caen.’ finds a frequent place on every middle-class French table. And yet, although tho supply is so great that thousands of pounds weight are thrown away daily at the Halles, the price still remains high. The Prefect of Police is going to look into tho matter, and if ho can succeed in getting it sold ehcajier the measure of economy will no doubt include an ‘ Eat More Tripe ’ campaign. “ There is another delicacy of which tho price has gone up instead of down, and that is trnlHes. but Incr. is a reason for it. in tho Departments of the Lot and the Dordogne, which make up the district of Pcrigord, has been cultivated for generations a particular variety of oak, winch grows truffles at its roots. For the health of those truffles rain in August is essential, and there has been none tins year. So they will have to put something else to flavor tho pato do foie gras.”