LAWYERS AS NAVVIES

Evening Star, Issue 20995, 8 January 1932, Page 12

LAWYERS AS NAVVIES

NON-PAYMENT OF RATES There were gay scenes on the highways of Montpellier, the principal city of the Herault, Prance, on a recent Sunday, when the younger members of the Montpellier Bar went forth armed with picks and shovels and worked as ordinary road-mender's. They ejected to do _ this instead of paying local rates, which they hold to be excessive—thus exercising the right of every French citizen, a right inherited from feudal times —to pay certain levies in kind instead of in cash. This novel protest against ever-in-creasing taxation was a picturesque affair. The association of young lawyers of the city had addressed a letter to its members explaining exactly what would be expected of them. The administration, it was pointed out, only furnished the protective glasses worn by its flint-breakers. The barristers provided themselves with spades, pickaxes, and hammers, and reported for duty clad in stout boots and leather gaiters. Moreover, they brought with them their “ victuals for the midday repast,” and consumed them on the scene or operations at the Cafe Pont-du-Jour.