SLUMP IN PARIS.

Grey River Argus, 9 December 1926, Page 5

SLUMP IN PARIS.

DUE TO RISE OF FRANC. Business at Standstill. (Received December 8 at 10 p.m.) PARIS, December 7. The shopkeepers’ faces are growing sadder. There is a continued improvement in thc franc. This has rendered prices extortionate. While complaining plaintively of a lack of customers, the shopkeepers still sell a necktie at 75 francs, which is purehaseablc at London at half that price. Thc caff’s are deserted, and thc hotels only half full. The Montemarte, relying almost exclusively on foreigners, is loudly complaining. The coal-black leaders of the jazz bands see their occupations fast disappearing. The only hope of the proprietor, as he gazes over his ample, shirt front at the deserted tables, is that M. Poincare will come to a sudden end. There were only SO passengers from London in the train at the Garc Du Nord, whereas there wore hundreds previously. The hotels whose prices wore exorbitant, when tho franc was down and Paris was full of foreigners, are besieging the tourist, agencies to participate in the few orders going. Prices everywhere are too high toi the Parisian. Hence business is at its lowest ebb since the war days. The Frenchman’s one consolation is that he has the boulevards himself, [after loudly complaining that they 'were chock full of barbarians.