WHOLESALE THEFTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 May 1921, Page 11

WHOLESALE THEFTS.

A FRENCH SCANDAL. DISPOSAL OF WAR STOCKS. (The Christian Science Monitor.) Paris, March 17. That there have been serious scandals in the liquidation of the war stocks, both French and American, has been known for a long time, but the revelations in the Chamber of Deputies of certain incidents provoked the deepest indignation. Emmanuel Brousse, who for a year was in charge of the liquidation, declared that he had prosecuted 510 persons of whom more than 400 had been condemned. He had dismissed 4271 officials of one kind or another. Out of 88 chiefs in the camps he had replaced 27.

This is a formidable total which will indicate sufficiently the muddle and the dishonesty that prevails in the disposal of the stocks. It is understood that further revelations are to follow, bat in the meantime Emmanuel Brousse has caused some consternation by his fearexposure. The American stocks were ceded to France for 400,000,000 dol. payable in 10 years. At the moment of the contract it would probably have been possible to have fixed the amount in francs. The dollar then was worth seven fjancs. It is now worth fourteen.

DISORDER INCREDIBLE. The incredible disorder that reigned in the camps was vigorously denounced. Pilfering and pillage on a large scale went «on continually. Those who were charged with the surveyance of the stocks were among the worst offenders. The State bad thus lost considerable sums which should be deducted from the amount it is called upon to pay. Since th© departure of the Americans, according to Mr. Brousse, the control of the camps has been almost impossible because of the lack of personnel. Before the purchase 100,000 men were available. Afterwards there were no more than 1500. It is not surprising in these conditions that there were constant losses.

Mr. Brousse attempted a reorganisation of the service. There was a perpetual warfare with the profiteers. At the beginning it was thought politic to lower the cost of everything, and to help in this direction the stocks were solid cheaply. The trouble was that although the stocks were sold cheaply they Were bought by profilteers who" themselves sold very dear. ’Mr. Brousse then raised the prices. It was objected that the Americans were opposed to this course for their intentions were partly philanthropic. Again he lowered the prices with the result that the profiteers again benefited. PRIORITY OF CHOICE ABUSED. He related the story of an official who made a bargain involving millions of francs with a baroness and a marquis on conditions that could only be subject to the gravest suspicions. He was dismissed and brought before a commission of inquiry. The commission of inquiry not only acquitted him but he received a better post. Called upon to give the names of the purchasers Mr. Brousse did so but he said that to give the full list of profiteers would be too long. He related other incidents of a similar kind. The government departments which bought articles left them so long that they became rotten. This was notably the case with the wooden booths arid other materials purchased for the devastated regions that were allowed to fall to pieces. As for the officials they put large sums of money which they had collected in the banks and drew the interest upon for themselves. One man had as much as 20,000 francs a month interest.

The. priority of choice which was given to the public departments was abused. Each ministry could select whatever it wanted. But the articles having been selected were left where they were and were, in some instances, lost.

Thus at the moinent of the coup d’etat in Berlin the French War Minister asked that the stocks of copper and steel should not be sold elsewhere. They were accordingly kept. They rusted and became more or less useless. The price has since fallen and hundreds of millions of francs have been thus thrown away. He sold 57,000,000 francs -worth of leather for the manufacture of what were called national boots. He was paid 40'00 francs. The League of Nations asked him for 6,000,000 francs worth of goods to facilitate the repatriation of German prisoners. But in this ease Mr. Brousse sent the League of Nations empty* away. ADMINISTRATION DEFENDED. The personnel was deplorable. There were a large number of convicts in charge of the stocks. Some of them had spent 10 years in prison. One purchaser gave a check for 5,000.000 francs,, which

was not met by the bank. Another bought a booth containing nearly 2,000,000 francs worth of goods and later it was found that there had been surreptitiously put in the booth another 2,000,000 francs worth of good?. These contracts were cancelled.

Naturally Mr .Brousse defended his own administration. His efforts were directed toward the restoration of order. He sold en bloc certain camps and found that when they were under private control they were properly managed. The Chamber expressed snprise that in the case of a man who gave a huge "'check without having a penny in the bank to meet his obligations no prosecution followed. Nor was there any measure taken against the officials who had been culpably complaisant. In the Meuse, the Germans accumulated more than 100,000,000 francs worth of material expecting to take Verdun. There was steel, bricks, cement, rails and so forth. The local authorities’ ended by saying that they had no need of this material. Nobody occupied himself, with the result that it became useless. In the ports there was the same disorder. Certain military organisations made bargains with America and forgot to take delivery. One ship was unable to deliver a ton of steel which it carried because nobody woulcLtake it. )

From all parts of the chamber there were exclamations. What was the government doing? Was it unaware of all these things? BILLS NOT BEING PAID. At the beginning of this year the French stocks had been sold to the extent of 5,478,143,102 francs. There had been paid only 4,550,000,000. The American stocks had been sold to the amount of 2,477,587,940 francs. There had been paid 1,179,058,370. In the total nearly 8,000,000,000 francs’ worth had been sold, and only 5,259-000,000 francs paid. Wliile private persons had largely acquitted their obligations only a few hundred millions being missing —the foreign governments and the minrstenal departments who had bought over 4,000,000,000 had only paid 1500-

Mr. Brousse declared that he had brought these facts several times before the ministers and had even addressed a report to the President of the Republic. These declarations made a great impression upon the Chamber and there were attacks upon one of the chief subordinates of Mr. Brousse. The matter will again come up for discussion.