THE AXE IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19485, 15 November 1926, Page 11

THE AXE IN FRANCE.

GOVERNMENT'S ECGWGRS-ftS. MANY PUBLIC PROTESTS. THE TWO-COURSE MEAL'. The cry of the axed, is heard in the land, said the Paris correspondent of the London Observer at the end of December. From every part of France, from every department of the Government, the 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 bo present were warned that all local interests would bo mobilised against them at the next elections. The mayors maintained that, unreal economies will result from the proposed reforms and that M. Poincaire in decreeing them was abusing tho powers 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 tho protests for 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 the country groans. "Pnblio economios are never very popular," says the correspondent, "and the axe which has fallen upon so many subprefectures and local courts of justice, if it has reduced the list which all Freneh schoolchildren 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 do Justice over its portals will deprive the local cafo of several regular customers whose not excessive labours as public servants allow them to pass the afternoon over a quiet game of manille 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 be expected, I fear, that the forthcoming suppression of the jobs of 700 tax collectors will mean that we shall pay any less in taxes. One would have thought, indeed, that this was the one public service in France which was not overstaffed and underworked, and that tlie chief result of reducing its numbers would bo to make tho delays in the collection of tho revenue even longer than they aro at present. The State Theatres, "On the other hand, if the public will support the 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 tihat is the reduction of the subsidies of tho State thoatres. Even tho boldest advocate of retrenchment would hardly dare to touch tho Comedie-Francaise. now in its third century of existence, with its intricate constitution of selfgovernment built up on successive royal, imperial and republican decrees, and its subvention as an integral part of that constitution. If they did, the GJomedie would no doubt defend Its rights before the Oonseil d'Esat, and eyen. the Mjfoieti'y of Finance would probably bavo to giVe in. .<■- • '. "But there are the Opera, the Opera Comique and the OHeon, which are i«?t self-governing, but in which a appointed By the State and receiving j* subsidy from it, rana 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, ip; each case the manager would have a ground for aotion against the State if'one of the principal conditions of his agreement #ere suddenly suppressed or oven modified. Opinion was also exercised about that other form of economy which was to enforce the reduction of private as w$U as public expendityro. The two-course meal in restaurants seems to bp 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, which has been obliged to put up a notice in its dining room to the effect that meals consisting of horse-d'oeuvra 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 tho 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, . Tho Prfco o! Tripe. "There has alsp been some surprise that the sumptuary lawa 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 freqnent 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, tho 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 no doubt include an 'Eat More Tripe' campaign. "There is another delicacy of which tho price haa gone up instead of down; and that is traffles; bat then there is a reason for it. In tho 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 truffles at its roots. For the health of these truffles rain in August is essential and there has been none this .year. So they will have to put something else to flavour the pale de Me gras,"