The North Otago Times MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1916. STABILITY OF FRENCH FINANCE.

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13754, 13 November 1916, Page 4

The North Otago Times MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1916. STABILITY OF FRENCH FINANCE.

"We look forward to the future with buoyant hope and serene confidence," declared M. Ribot, the French Minister of Finance, in making an announcement early in September that France intended issuing the second War Loan. "The confidence of Frenchmen in the future is absolute," he continued. "The strongest proof of this is the loan we raised last year, which furnished us with a capital of 600 millions sterling, and still stands-three points above the issuing price." The terms offered for the second War Loan were not quite, as attractive as the first Loan. It was not for a.specified iuiM aud ho portion'of it will be diverted to the conversion of previous loans. Subscriptions had to !be in hard cash or Treasury Bonds —there was'none of the sleight of hand, paper business that is practised in Germany. The second loan is not redeemable at, any given date; -that 'is to say, the French Treasury will only have to provide the interest on it. It was expected to yield important, results. The most remarkable feature of French finance is the solid way iu which the revenue continues on the road towards normal, conditions. When it is realised that nine Departments, or counties, of France, including tlie richest covm-

try, arc in the hands of the invaders, and that millions of taxpayers have been mobilised, it is astonish- 1 ing to find that in the two> years of war 78.07 per cent, of tile nor- ■ jinal revenue-has :been collected. ( | This gradual' return to norinal conditions is shown by a comparison between the revenue of the first and second years of the war. There was a falling off in the first year of nearly 48 millions ; and in the second year of just over , 241 millions. Some interesting , figures have been given lately , with regard, to French Avar finance during the. first tAvo-years. ( Expenditure has, quite expectedly, grown enormously. Last year it amounted to £908,224,680; in 1916 , to £1,294,035,800—an increase of £336,094,564, or nearly 50 per cent. The average monthly expenditure throughout 1915 was £75,680,000 ; in 1916 it has been £107,800,000. Purely Avar expenditure since the beginning of the Avar to June, 1916, amounts to £1,809,297,768, or nearly 75 per cent, of the total public expenditure since August Ist, 1914. The success of the second War Loan is announced this morning. The appeal for money realised £454,000,000, and the cable message significantly adds: "Of Avhich sum £160,000,000 is in gold." This is an answer to Germany's claim that Prance i.s bleeding Avhite—in blood and in treasure. While the Germans are appealing for subscriptions to the fourth or fifth Avar loan,, and are trying to tempt the people to subscribe by baiting the hook with the glaring newspaper advertisements that "under the sign of von Hindenbui'g the neAv War Loan is standing. Everyone must do all in his poAver to make it a success worthy of von Ilindenburg," and family heirlooms and gold ornaments are being garnered into tin; German Treasury, the French subscribe over four hundred and fifty millions to the second War Loan in hard cash, of Avhich £160,00,0,000 is in gold. Every] day the hopeful turn taken by events at the front strengthens the financial 1 stability of the Allies, by increasing confidence at home and abroad. In France llierc is very little futile argument about after the Avar. They believe with Mr Churchill, "that all sorts of bright prospects will open out after the Avar lias been won." Until then for nine hundred and ninety-nine men and Avoiuen out of every thousand in every country the motto is "Look after the Avar and after the war will look after itself." Statesmen in Franco, indeed in every country in the Liberty and Justice Entente, are realising, and Germany is realising, too, that the Allies have a great trump card in their financially, for the . world recognises that the final | triumph pf Great Britain and her [ Allies is merely a question of time.