FRENCH PREMIER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 45, 22 August 1938, Page 9

FRENCH PREMIER

CALL' FOR COURAGE

ECONOMIC STABILITY

STRENGTH OF, FRANC

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received August 22, 11.15 a.m.)] PARIS, August 21. "Peace with honour and solidarity with the great demccracies can only be maintained if we have courage enough to avert a monetary and financial crisis and get France back to work," declared the Prime Minister, M. Daladier, in a broadcast speech, in which he again emphasised that a new devaluation of the franc and the establishment of exchange control would lead to a precarious situation in regard to if not the ruin of the Anglo-French-American monetary agreement. M. Daladier promised measures to increase the national revenue and balance the Budget without deflation and to revise the 44-hour week to en- , sure its being more flexible in the war aadustries. He also promised to lighten the tax burden on industry, secure price stability, and leave the long-term loan market relatively free in order to enable capital to become available for private industry. "I don't believe in the inevitability of war," he added. "I, like all former. ' front-line soldiers, am resolved to do my utmost to keep Europe from annihilation, but great States in Central Europe are displaying and testing their forces, thereby warning France, which depends not only on her armies, but also on the daily in her factories

and workshops and on the stability of

her currency and finances." He described the franc as one of the strongest currencies in the world owing to the gold coverage and the Exchange Equalisation Fund.