THE AXE IN FRANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1926, Page 7

THE AXE IN FRANCE

GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMIES MANY PUBLIC PROTESTS. THE TWO-COURSE MEAL. The , cry of the axed is heard in tlie land, said tlie Paris correspondent of tlie London Observer at the end of December. From every part of France, from every department of the Government, tlie wail of protest is rising against the Government administrative economies, every Senator and Deputy has received an urgent summons from the threatened Mayors to attend what is practically an unofficial national assembly. Parliamentarians refusing to be present were warned that all local interests would be mobilised against them at the next elections. The mayors maintained that unreal economies will result from the proposed reforms, and that M. Poincare, in decreeing them, was almsing ihe (lowers given him by Parliament. While many shared the Mayors’ views as to the amount of public money saved by the axe, there was too much of a political anti-Ministerial flavour about the protests for them to have much effect. Mnisters 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 the speeding-up of all local government, and cut down the burden of paper under which the country groans. "Public economies are never verj r popular,”, said the correspondent, “amt the axd which has fallen upon so many sub-prefectures and local courts of justice, if it has reduced the 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 the proud title of Palais de Justice over its portals, will deprive the local cafe of several regular customers whose uot excessive labours as public servants allow them 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 be less generally unpopular. It can, however, hardly be expected, I fear, that the forthcoming suppression of the jobs of '7OO tax collectors will mean that we shall pay any less in taxes. One would have thought, indeed, that this was lire one public service in France which was not overstaffed and underworked, and that the chief result of reducing its numbers would be to make the delays in the collection of the revenue even longer than they are at present. THE STATE THEATRES. “On the other hand, if the public will support the abolition of tax collectors without a murmur France, 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 the State theatres. Even the boldest advocate of retrenchment would hardly dare to touch the Comedie-Francaise, now in its third century of existence, with its intricate constitution of selfgovernment built up on successive royal, imperial and republican decrees, -nd its subvention as an integral part of that constitution. If they did, the Comedie would no doubt defend its rights before tlie Consei! d’Etat, and even the Ministry of Finance would probably have to give in. “But there are the Opera, the Opera Comique, and the 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 he can. These theatres are perhaps more vulnerable, but it is pointed out that in each case the manager would have a ground for action against the State if one of' the 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 two-course meal in restaurants seems to be accepted without much protest, said the writer. “After all. you can make it up in horsd’oeuvre, if you are hungry, and is there not a certain restaurant in Paris, famous for its hors-d’oeuvre, has been obliged to put up a notice in its dining room to the effect that meals consisting of hors-d’oeuvre only will not be allowed? There has, nevertheless, been a little trouble about wedding breakfasts, or ‘lunches,’ as they are called. Nobody can believe that the authorities really want to diminish the splendour of the marriage festivities of the petite bourgeoise, where the whole party starts off in a closed charabanc, upholstered in white and fitted with a piano, to eat an interminable meal in a suburban restaurant. THE PRICE OP TRIPE. “There has also been some surprise that the sumptuary laws have done so little to bring down the price of food. There is tripe, for instance. Now tripe, cooked slowly in the baker’s oven for at least half a day, ‘a la mode de Caen/ finds a frequent place on every middle class French table. And yet, although the 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 the matter, and if he can succeed in getting it sold cheaper the measures of economy will not doubt include an ‘Eat More Tripe’ campaign. “There is another delicacy of which the price has gone up instead of down: and that is truffles; but then there is a reason for it. In the Departments of the Lot and the Dordogne, which make up the district of Perigord, has been cultivated for generations the particular variety of oak which grows trifles at its roots. For the health of these truffles rain in August is essential, and there has been none this yexr. So they will have to put something else to flavour the pate de foie gras.”