DEPORTATION OF FRANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 19 August 1910, Page 7

DEPORTATION OF FRANCE.

SEARCH FOR A REMEDY

The first practical effort to stem the tide of depopulation in France was made to-day (says the Paris correspondent- of the "Standard" on. June 22), wh«n a bill drafted by Dr. Lanueionguc and countersigned by a score of eminent Lm (.nehmen was introduced in .the Senate. The Bill liroposos many modifications in the regulations, of tilie military and civil si.rvici s. which seem bound to have ccnsid'crablo effect if the Senate and Chamber approve them and pass them into law. Senator Lannelongue i?. a well-known doctor and professor of medicine, and an authority t..n tubeseu--10.-is. For his bill he has received the Mij'.pvrt of the following senators: —M. Leon Bourgeois, a former x'i inie Minister and Minister of Finance; M. Richard YYaridinigtoii. M. R.ibot. members of the Ai iii'tuny. ic.x-.l i'iiire M'iiiniiriteir ancJ,iex. Minister of Foreign Affairs; M. Alfred Mezicrcs. hi.-torian : and M. Fraari ; Cha.rnies. director of the "Revue des Deux Meu.dcs." both in.e.ii'.''b-t !'s of the Academy; M. Pc.vtral. M. M. Gauthier, and a dozen others. The following is- a. fiiimaary of .the bill :

1. Every man unmarried; at the age of 29 will be called un:.'ii to fulfil a series of extra, periodis of military service until he has been inscribed for 25 years on the active- or re-'erve forces.

2. No employee of .a State department or municipality is to be retained if not 'miirried at 25. Widower* or divoi'cees are ifao bo counted as married, and the rule is net to apply to civil servants already in employment, or to officers, non-commissioned officers, or men in the hind and sea forces.

3. Every civil 'servant employed by a Slr.'.e department or nnmicipality who is the father of three ibildren alive at the time sha'Ll bonefit—(a.) In promotion, (h) by a bounty of £8 yearly for each fliild under 15 beyond the thirc' child. 4. Eor pension the same civil servants shall benefit by a supplementary £4 r..nnually for each living child more thin three children. i>. The la.\v,< as to State-ordained partition of personal c-taites at death shall be cancelled, and parents shall have full freedom to 'bequeath as they wish.

The last clause is the most .important, and it will not be accented bv Parliament without, a Indeed, -there aire many chances that it will be defeated. The existing law. fixing v-erv narrow limits <to a father's bequests "to his children. and making it impossible for him to leave less than such a.nd such a fraction to- such and such relatives; dependent upon him, was >m.-.-ed years ;;,g ) for the so-called humanitarian" snotives .to provide that no sous should be brought up to a c-ei'ta-in standard of life, an.l then left' by chance or caprice wit hi out any means of continuing on the same scale of existence. It was thought at the time that the continual division of family lands wa.s economically dangerous. When embodied in law. however, the idea worked mute contrary to cn-l-ulatn'ons. Compelled to divide'the estate if they were blessed with more th:m one son or daughter/ landholders saw here a deterrent rather than an incentive- to bring up larger families. Indeed, this legislation "has often been bhi-med as Hhe first .persuading influence in favour of depopulation. .At the same time it expressed in practical a strong a'lid deep-iootcd objection to the "droit d ainesse" which so many French people consider an archaic weakness in English family law and custom.

In a covering letter attached to the bill. Professor Lannelongue underlines this when he says : —"The old regime before t'he compulsory division of successions, produced 'eldest' sons : but the present regime is worse: it produces families with 'only' sons." M. Lannelongue also attacks the short-sighted and narrow political economy of small French families, who contralis e ' their interest in the family fortune; which is to be hand, ed down from generation to generation. and to be kept out of all risk and danger at every cost. This spirit, says .A I. Lannelongue. is a public evil, involving relative unproduotivity of capital, and r restraining initiative alnd enterprise. The bill is generally well received, and there is ground for the hope -that itprinciples at- least will receive some interpretation in the .Statute-book before the end of the present Legislature.