GRAVE SITUATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 9

GRAVE SITUATION

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES

LONDON, May 28.

Extraordinary scenes are being witnessed at the Bank of France, where queues of men and women waiting to exchange notes for gold include scores of peasants. The cashiers believe that the gold run has brought out all the old misers in Paris. One man asked for sixty ingots. When a cashier explained that they would break through the floor of a taxi he took twenty and said he would return for the rest.

A number of Frenchmen arrived by air at Croydon. Some deposited gold ingots in the strongroom at the aerodrome, and others went to the city in search of safe deposits. One staggered from an aeroplane with a load of half a hundredweight of gold worth over £10,000.

Altogether five tons of bar gold valued at £1,250,000 landed at Croydon, and £500,000 sterling arrived at Folkestone by sea.

The "Daily Telegraph's" city editor, referring to the increase in the French Bank rate to 6 per cent., says that the rise emphasises the gravity of the situation. Never before in history has the Bank of Prance advanced the rate 2 per cent, at one move. The British exchange fund is again active, and has both bought and sold francs to prevent violent fluctuations.

The "Financial Times" describes the position in France as one definitely a state of crisis. It is apparent that the application of orthodox methods is failing to correct the abnormal situation. The core of. the trouble is the failure of Frande to undertake the sacrifices requisite to ensure the safety of the currency. '

The "Financial Times" says that the crux of the position still remains the French Treasury's shortage of cash.