THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1925. ANOTHER FRENCH “CRISIS.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XV, Issue 202, 25 November 1925, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1925. ANOTHER FRENCH “CRISIS.”

Political crises in France are of such frequent occurrence that it may almost be said that there the body politic is constantly in a condition that is chronically critical—by the way, a quite unpremeditated piece of alliteration. No doubt many are keeping tally of the number of Ministries that have been in office since the Great War ended. There were a good few changes even while it was in course of being fought, much to the embarrassment of the more stable Government of France’s chief ally. But since the Armistice new French Administrations have followed one another with such bewildering rapidity that most folk will have lost count of their number. One result, however, has been that we have come to attach but little importance to these manifestations of the volatile French character, and to regard one French Cabinet as very much like the last, though with different figureheads. A good deal of this mutability is, of course, assignable to the multiplicity of political parties, or rather groups, for many of them are of such small numerical proportions that they can scarcely be called parties, at any rate in the British acceptation of the term. In all there mustbe pretty nearly a score, big and little, of these political aggregations, each fancying that it holds views that definitely distinguish it from any other, and none with any hope of counting an actual majority of it own immediate adherents. So we have it that the policy of a Government is always very much a matter of arrangement and compromise among a bigger or less number of these many political divisions and subdivisions, with but little chance of any permanence in office being attained. It cannot, of course, be said, that this is a consequence of the adoption of an electoral system designed to secure proportional representation, for in France there were many political cults before it was brought into operation. It is quite safe to say, however, that since that system came into vogue the condition of chronic instability has been greatly aggravated.

While thus we do not necessarily require to assign any great significance to the contemplated fresh political shuffle in France merely as such, there need be no doubt but | that as a symptom of a grave financial crisis it is really serious. France has undoubtedly got herself into an almost inextricable fiscal tangle. This is easily traceable to the inability or refusal of her rulers to face unassailable facts. One Cabinet after another has had recourse to mere palliatives when drastic operation was really required that the longer postponed the more severe it had to be made. In the first instance, both the French people and the French Government deluded themselves into the belief that Germany could be made io pay for the war. The. reparations that Were io be, exacted from her wi re counted a . an assur«?d asset, upon I

be based. French Ministries, therefore, one after the other went on working upon this assumed credit, issuing paper money galore with which to pay in the meantime. Thus a false idea of prosperity was induced with no thought of the day of reckoning that had to come. Conditions in France are different from those in Germany, where an apparently reckless paper policy of like appearance was in reality designed to get rid of State obligations, and in a great measure effected that purpose. What has no doubt brought France up with a round turn is the realisation, at the one time, that her outside creditors with the United States of America setting’ the standard, are pressing for payment and that the main asset upon which she relied to draw has largely failed her. While Great Britain faced the inevitable at once, placing no value on German reparations, France, perhaps, owing to undue optimism, not altogether consciously, has put off the evil day, only to find that her difficulties have been multiplied indefinitely. A fair comparison of the relative soundness of the two courses pursued may be found in the value of the British pound sterling and that of the French franc in the world’s money marts. British sterling ranks once more everywhere, even in goldglutted New York, as it did before the war. It takes five French francs now to represent what one did then.