The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1957. Austerity Budget in France

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28359, 19 August 1957, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1957. Austerity Budget in France

The National Assembly’s approval of a Budget designed as a stem corrective to the financial troubles that have beset France since the end of World War II was an impressive achievement for the young Minister of Finance (Mr Felix Gaillard).'The politicians who control the National Assembly have known for years that France needed real austerity; but they had withheld thetr approval for fear of electoral unpopularity. That they have agreed now to a drastic pruning of government spending and to an austerity programme—the first sign of which is the partial devaluation of the franc—suggests that they have at last conceded that economic necessity must outweigh political expediency. Mr Gaillard deserves credit for his courage

in persevering with a programme that, on earlier precedents, carried the strong risk of bringing down the Government. France has been enjoying a period of expansion, witn buoyant conditions in industry, a buoyancy often concealing from the French the gravity of their national problem. Mr Gaillard apparently intends, according to “ The Times ”, to . deflate the French economy by reducing government and private expenditure, “the latter to “ be achieved by. allowing some "prices to rise (but not all “ prices, and not indiscrimin-

“ately) while avoiding a com- “ pensatory increase of wages ”, The policy may be easier to enunciate than to execute. If |ts aims are achieved, the whole of Europe should benefit, and a surer foundation will be laid for the Common Market. One serious difficulty confronting Mr Gaillard is in reconciling reduced defence expenditure with the main-

tenance of military spending in Algeria. The French Government has made it obvious in the last few weeks that it does not intend to retreat in North Africa. The austerity programme is designed specifically to avoid any reduction of military commitments there. The continuous drain on French resources of keepi.ng half a . million men under arms in Algeria and of conducting a ‘ rigorous security campaign against terrorist tactics by the 300,000 Moslems now living in France is tremendous. More than national pride and the welfare of French colonists is at stake in this costly campaign. Oil in the Sahara may give an ■ economic value to the North African deserts that they did not previously possess. However, the prospect in North i Africa is at best only a continuation of a costly struggle against rebellion. Mr Gaillard's ' high political courage should 1 have at least an indirect effect ! on these operations by providing stability at home.