FRENCH RISE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 31 October 1924, Page 7

FRENCH RISE.

20,000 SACKED EXTRA PAY TO OTHERS. LONDON, Oct. 13., M. Herriot, Premier of France, seems to have found a' way out of the dilemma. with which he was confronted as the result pf the demand by French Government servants for higher' pay. He has decided, according to the. Paris correspondent of the Times, to grant a higher scale of pay, simultaneously discharging '20,000 Employees'. His idea, apparently, is that the money saved by the dismissals will suffice to. meet the increase in pay for those who remain. M. Herriot will probably find It no easy matter to remove 20,000 from a working organisation Dy a niere stroke of the pen, difficulties are almost pound to arise. The French Government salary list includes more than 1,000,000. persons of all walks of life. Generally they are not particularly interested in politics, but, having tried in vain for tliree years to get M- Poincare', the former Premier, to listen to their appeal for better conditions, they ducted last May to vote solidly for the Left Wing’. Indeed, they were mainly responsible for putting M. Herriot in power. They are now awaiting their reward. The servants claimed a scale of payment based pn a minimum wage of "6000 francs a year. If that is granted M. Clementel (Minister of Finance) says it would seriously affect his Budget Estimates.