PAYING FOR THE WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 10 November 1919, Page 4

PAYING FOR THE WAR.

FRENCH < LOTTERY* SCHEMER v In ■view of the heavy deficit in the French. Budget and the .. need fkr raising mortby to meet iltne j , enormouts.' charges arising out Of i-the.-i war, the notion that .the. end in 'view odold, be best achieved by the organisation of a colossal 'lottery is steadily : gaining ground in France- fx .-vr J • Two propositions) for Stall© lotteries . were laid before the Chamber ' somo # weeks ago, the amount involved in one proposal beine £1,200.000,000, sterling, / j-; and. in the other £4,000,000000. , .The, authors of these [pftioposate,' however, ’ wean. deputies who have, up claim to expert hawwled'ee of finance. The question hdg now been taken up .. by M. Andre Lelevre., who with AM., der Monafe and Raoul ‘the reputation of being one of the sounds esfc financial <mt<horifties .- in the Chamber. M. 1 Lefevr© has .baought x forwand a Bill to raise £2,400,000,000 byi ■ means of a lottery’ This, he prroppses, should tafce the form of an issue bf • ■ 120,000,000 bonds of £2O each. These bonds would! yield, no »«w would be -redeemable at par by* dinlfr yearly drawings covering a ..period l. pi i twenty years. •Thus (the scheme reaMy ! aipounts to a. loan without- interest. .In ■ ordbr compensate for non-payment i of interest, it ip .proposed that, in'addi- ■ tion (to the redemption referred to there should be a seises pf very subfitantial prizes which would to , drawn for'in a manner adopted .under , tj\e premium bond The Bill proposes that for lhe first 4wo years inhere should be a daily drawing for a prize of 1,250,0® frwjcß. -w . £50,000, and[ that ini addition there should be two wpekly prizes o| :£3t>OQQ and ifcen of ’£4ooo- After the first tw° years it is .proposed (that the drawing . for the £90,000 prize should be wfeekly i instep of daily. Such a plan, it i® upgad. would *«*- ; able the State to, escape the heavy anI' nuaJ interest charges involved by n«r . tional. loans of the, ordjijiiaa'y kind, * aodi , , would, piece the Treasury in immediate . possession. of aa-enormous sum of ready i money. An nodinary loan issued at, 25 per cent, discount, redeemable jatpar- • and yielding, say, 4 * . .for 25 year®, it as pointed out, . i ruinous method of money, '!** , i it results dm the State hfl/vmg .to ’PJJJ! something like £2® for a loan of - i The advocates of this' particular lot- . tery system utrga. Ithat it offers a jniddue • [ course between a costly \loan of j . the type hitherto- m vogue sod .a - r tax on capital, and they 'the .. fact that although lottery man bhmte - ; i carry no interest, they ,are TOdsemabte , at par, whereas .® «BSr / ( be equivalent to absolute • , of the amount taken by the. State. J j 1 ‘ 1 r.JMiSf-'