A PREVIOUS SURVIVAL

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 9

A PREVIOUS SURVIVAL

DRAMATIC SCENES

At the end of the last session the Tardiou Cabinet weathered another of those stormy days which so frequently have been its lot. On the morning of Bth July, when nothing very exciting was foreseen, it had one of its projects rejected by the Chamber of Deputies by 297 votes to 275. This was followed by an afternoon attack in the Senate by the Opposition, which came within one vote of overthrowing the Government. Political calm was restored only in the evening, when Andre Tardieu succeeded in obtaining from the Chamber his customary majority of more than 60 on a vote of .confidence. At the bottom of the skirmishes lay the Opposition's desire to seize one of the last opportunities before adjournment to embarrass the Government. The Cabinet's prestige perhaps suffered slightly, but it appeared probable that M. Tardieu would be able to carry through his big national Te-equipment programme and then declare a political truce. The Government's reverse in. the Chamber came after a debate in. which M. Tardieu did not participate, and which was not made the subject of a vote of confidence. Pierre-Etienne Flandin, Minister of Commerce, asked the Chamber to ratify the agreement concluded in 1929 between the Government and the private oil company known as the Trench Eefining Company. This would have entailed tacit approval for an earlier contract concluded in 1924 between the Government and the French oil company which, although never formally ratified by Parliament, has been in operation. SECULAR EDUCATION. Opposition leaders made the point that the Government's procedure would bo to ask the Chamber's approval first for the 1924 contract before requesting ratification of the later agreement. The 1924 contract authorised the French oil company to exploit the French share in the Mosul oil fields on. condition that the Government should receive 25 per cent, of its earnings. In the Senate the question at issue was that of secular education on which the Radicals had successfully opposed the Government in the Chamber four days earlier. Senator Jean Phillip interpellated the Government on the refusal of the Ministry of Public Instruction to permit school inspectors to attend the festival organised in honour of secular education. M. Tardieu defended the Miaistry's action and asked for a vote oi' confidence which almost proved his undoing since when the ballots were counted the Government had only a majority of five, which, upon a recount, dwindled to one. GRANT OP LEAVE. The vote of confidence which M. Tardieu obtained from the Chamber at the end of the session was on the refusal to grant eighteen days' leave to men serving their military term for agricultural work. The Government maintained that since the term of compulsory service had been reduced to one year such grants of leave were impossible. Moreover, the Government claimed to have done much for agriculture in more effectual ways. During theso Parliamentary flurries the Government's big national re-equip-ment programme made its first appearance in the Chamber almost unnoticed. The programme called for the expenditure of 17, or 18 billion, franc* over-a,

period of five years for improvements in roads, seaports, cabals, agricultural, industrial, and educational equipment. THE BUDGET. The explanatory statement concerning the Budget Estimates for the financial year beginning on Ist April, 1931, was given in the "Manchester Guardian" recently. M. Germain Martin, the Minister for the Budget, gave in it, to begin with, a summary of the financial situation since the stabilisation of the franc in June, 1928. He then gave details of the estimated expeniliture for the current financial year, which amounted to 50,398,167,195 francs (in round figures £403,200,000). Of this total the service of the debt and war pensions absorb 47.8 per cent., military, naval, and air force expenditure 21.9 per cent., Administration 13 per cent., social services (including education) 10.9 per cent., "national equipment" 6.2 per cent., and other expenses 0.2 per cent. The estimated expenditure for the financial year 1931-32 was in round figures 50,251,000,000 francs (£402,000,----000). Although the total expenditure was thus slightly reduced, that on military service was increased by 748,000,----000 francs (£6,384,000), and amounted to £93,352,000 in round figures. But this did not include all the actual eJpcnditiiro on. the army, navy, and ait force, some of which was dispersed "in the estimates of other departments. Nor did it include the expenditure oh forti•fjiag the-fron-fciergj • '