NEW FRENCH DECREES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 17

NEW FRENCH DECREES

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

MODIFIED BY GOVERNMENT

At today's Council of Ministers, over Which President Lebrun presided, agreement was reached upon a second series of financial and economic decrees which are to appear in the "Journal Officiel" tomorrow, said the Paris correspondent of "The Times" in a dispatch on May 24. This second series, consisting of 53 decrees, is divided into five main sections. The first deals with public works, the second with the organisation of credit, the third with colonial development and the export trade, the fourth with labour, and the last with financial reform. The public works programme is to be spread over a period of three years, and calls for a total expenditure of 11,000,000,000f. (about £62,000,000 sterling), of which the State will provide 6,000,000,000f. and the local authorities 5,000,000,000f. by means of loans guaranteed by the State if necessary. A total of 1,600,000,000f. is set aside for slum clearance to be put in hand before the end of December, 1940. It is emphasised that State guarantees for local loans will be given sparingly, and only after the closest investigation by Treasury officials. t CREDIT FOR INDUSTRY. In order to make medium-term credits more easily available, the various institutions handling this type of credit are to be authorised to extend the total of their loans by 3,000,000,0001 (£16,000,000). At the same time industries requiring funds in order to acquire new or improved plant are to be given facilities to borrow money at between 3 per cent, and 4 per cent, to a greater extent than was authorised by a decree promulgated in the summer of last year. Cheque legislation is tightened and the penalties for uttering a cheque without cover are increased. The stamp duty on cheques is reduced to 50 centimes (about two-thirds of a penny) • In the introduction to the third section of the new series of decrees reference is made to the importance of increasing French trade with foreign countries, and with the French colonial empire. Groups of industries or trades engaged in the export trade will be given facilities to borrow money at specially favourable rates, and the Government will give financial support to trade delegations and other expert bodies sent abroad in order to study export markets. The system of export credits is to be extended, and in order to strengthen the markets for French colonial produce and to encourage foreign countries to import such produce through France, free ports are to be established where necessary. A small tax is placed on all cocoa and tea sales in order to finance a publicity campaign aiming at increased consumption of these beverages. Colonial banks of issue will extend credits to colonial producers so as to facilitate trade. WORKING EXTRA HOURS. In the decree dealing with the 40----hour week it is laid down that all employers desiring to do so may ask their staffs to work an extra day or days to compensate for time lost on account of legal.. holidays. This "reform" was inherent- in the, original 40-hour week law, passed on June 21, 1936, and "the Government have "no need to exercise their special powers in order to put it anto effect.'■•., ; - ;-, What,is more important, however, is the authority, given to the Ministry of Labour, to authorise the working of extra hours in certain factories or certain industries, either in one area or throughout France, if the amount of-unfinished work on hand makes this necessary. This measure will chiefly benefit industries associated with the present. armaments programme; most other industries are so depressed that they do not at the moment require this authority. It is pointed out that there is in some cases a dearth of skilled labour, and in order to remedy this all juveniles between 14 and 17 at present engaged in industry are to be made to undergo a period of special training. Finally, approval has been given to a number of decrees aiming at the reform of local finances. The undertaking is given that a comprehensive measure^ will be submitted to Parliament as? soon as it reassembles.