PROFITEERS IN FRANCE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2227, 15 January 1921, Page 4

PROFITEERS IN FRANCE

LINES AND IMPRISONMENT

SHORT SHIFT FROM JUDGE

Speculators and profiteers are receiving short shift when brought lielore Judge Richard, in Paris, writes (l French correspondent. He is .sending so many plunderers to prison and fining them at the same time that dealers of all kinds are becoming anxious. .Merchants and manufacturers have met and passed n resolution protesting against what I hey call the “abuses" committed Injustice in the repression of speculation. Judge Richard is not likely to he inlluenced. "You say you are selling at a loss," he told speculators in sugar. “Now, you bought this sugar from the Y.M.C.A., and sold it to confectioners, who made sweets with it. If you like, you can speculate in silk stockings and jewels, which are not articles ol prime necessity, bur not with sugar." The judge informed speculators that indirectly they were the cause of the death of children, for infant

mortality wa- increasing because [here was no sugar in milk. In 1014 there was so much sugar that il was given to the cattle: to-day babies and old and sick people were deprived of il because it was 100 dear.

One of the accused brought before the judge for speculation in 'nun was a negro. In 1915 he was earning 7 francs a day hv working mi vescsls at Marseilles, and paying 45 francs a month for a room. The idea occurred to him, as it has occurred to thousands of other people, to go into the food trade. By dealing in rum he could do better than as a labourer in ships. The negro has done amazingly well. To-dav lie pa vs 7,0(10 francs a year for his Hat, in which he put 50,000 francs worth of furniture; lie owns two motor cars, keeps three servants, and has a villa at fsaint Genevieve, of which place lie is the Mayor. Having got on so well by his deals in rum, iho negro aspires to Parliamentary honours, and is a candidate at the Senatorial elections at Guadeloupe, of which country he is a native. lie lias made a profit: of -15 per cent, on 15 casks of rum, and he has been fined 5,000 francs. Justice has not yet done with the negro. Next month he will have to appear before the Court on a ('barge of concealing his war profits.