FRENCH POLITICS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1926, Page 3

FRENCH POLITICS

I Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] FRENCH. FINANCE. PARIS,, July 4. The report of tlic Committee of Experts who wore appointed to formulate a financial programme for .the State lias been submitted. The report emphasises that the Committee’s recommendations must be taken as a whole. The most striking passage says: ‘Financial reconstruction is bound to cause a grave economic crisis momentarily. The stabilisation of our exchange will involve a rise in our home prices, and increased production costs. It will reduce our exports. The bankruptcy of those firms that were artificially enriched by the fall of the franc will ensue. Unemployment is also inevitable, but the sooner and more effectively the position is faced, the shorter will be the crisis. France must depend primarily on her own efforts to restore her financial situation. The task is not an insurmountable one, but it will he a long and a painful one. The Committee is of the unanimous opinion that the measures they advise are calculated to ensure the righting of the position.” The recommendations include the raising of the customs duties. The report makes no mention of a. capital levy. It does, however, recommend Parliament temporarily to waive certain perogatives regarding expenditure, and that M. Caillaux be given a great degree of control in financial matters. It urges a retrenchment in expenditure a revision of sugar and drink businex turnover taxes, and the immediate conclusion of debt funding agreements with Britain and America, after which long-term loans should be negotiated, and the, franc ultimately stabilised at a figure between the cost of living index and the prevailing market rate, of the franc.