MORE OPTIMISM IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22590, 21 December 1938, Page 11

MORE OPTIMISM IN FRANCE

Unprecedented Boom In Securities

ABSENCE OF THREATS FROM MUSSOLINI

ftTJTITID PSXSS ASSOCIATION—COPTRIGHT.) (Received December 20, 9 p.m.) LONDON, December 20. The Paris representative of "The Times" says securities had an unprecedented boom on the Bourse.

Rentes jumped from three to six points, profit-taking being easily absorbed. Government stocks finished from three to seven points higher. This can be ascribed to the easy passage of the Foreign Ministry's appropriations, the absence of threats to France in Signor Mussolini's speech at Carbonia on Sunday, and businessmen's optimism regarding the success of M. Reynaud's four-year recovery plan. In a speech in the Chamber of Deputies the French Foreign Minister (M. Georges Bonnet) bluntly warned Italy that "any attempt to take any part of French territory will lead to an armed conflict."

He later explained to newspaper men that he meant not merely Corsica, Savoy, and Tunis, but every French possession.

The Chief of the French War Staff (General Gamelin) and Vice-Ad-miral Durlan will shortly make a tour of North Africa to inspect the defences of Algeria and Morocco.