SEEKING SCAPEGOATS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 246, 25 July 1940, Page 6

SEEKING SCAPEGOATS.

FRENCH EX-MINISTERS ACCUSED BLAMED FOR ENTERING WAR. LONDON, July 24. The Retain Government is seeking scapegoats for the war against Germany, while the French public is suffering bitterly from the chaotic finances resulting from the flood of German marks in the occupied areas. The Cabinet announced that the Courts would examine the responsibility .of M. Daladier, M. Maude], M. Campinch i, M- Delbos, and other former French Cabinet members for the declaration and operation of the war against Germany. M. Daladier, accompanied by a number of Deputies, arrived at Marseilles from French Morocco. He has been forbidden to leave the city.

Tho Cabinet also announced that M. Jean Zav, a former Minister for Education, M. Paul Viennot, a former Xln-der-Seeretary for Foreign Affairs; M. Pierre Mendes-France, an TTnder-Secre-tary in the Blum Cabinet, and a Deputy, M. Wiltzer, would be court-mar-tialled as military deserters. They are alleged to have embarked at Bordeaux for Casablanca without authority.

A decree also approves the confiscation of property and the withdrawal ol citizenship from Frenchmen who fled from France between May 10 and June 30 without permission. General de Gaulle and other prominent Frenchmen at present in London and America are included. The French Minister for Finance (M. Bouthillier) has arrived in Paris and is doing his utmost to create a semblance of order in French finances. Means of payment for the simplest transactions frequently fail. Tho German mark in the occupied areas is fixed at the rate of 20 francs, compared with 11 francs before the war. German, soldiers are taking to shopping, which is making inroads into France’s wealth.

Financial newspapers state that this will lead to disaster unless the Germans agree to a more favourable rate. This is unlikely, and the alternative solution, increased prices, is impossible because the Germans severely punish shopkeepers for the slightest increase. Life in Paris is dreary. Housewives are forming up in long queues buying food, while the Germans are thronging all quarters and buying promiscuously.