CRISIS IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19391, 28 July 1926, Page 13

CRISIS IN FRANCE.

INFLATION OF THE FRANC. ALLEGATION OF RICHES. THEORY REGARDING TOURISTS. There is not much that irritates Parisian commentators more at the present time than affirmations ia foreign capitals that France is a rich country in which money is poured out like water on pleasures and even on luxnries, says Mr. Ronald Atkinson, Paris correspondent of the Sunday Times. Practically avery timo that such an assertion is made somebody seizes a pen and dashes off a very passionate piece of prose designed to establish that very little money is spent in France on enjoyment because the French citizen is in the position of not having any funds available in view of the high cost of living and the tremendous taxes, and that what money is spent on luxuries comes from the pockets of tourists, who, being able to purchase French goods at a fifth of the price which they represent for French people, are little short of fxchange-rate profiteers. Largely it is the frequent repetition of thesu arguments which has created hostile feelings toward tourists. But, as usual, it is an affair of exaggerations on both sides, and r«cent happenings have contained matter of consider" able interest which enables the observer to get a far more accurate conception of the situation. For example, there hss come the revelation in the official returns of the railways that never has an Easter holiday period seen so many travellers as the last one. Records wer-e smashed very thoroughly, the Paris termini recording figures that have never been approached, For a time there was a pretence that it was the exceptional invasion of British tourists which was responsible, but the figures of the Southern Railway, given as fewer than forty thousand, show that these were merely as a drop in the bucket. The departures from Paris alone in which the British visitors can scarce,ly be counted, amounted to nearly a million and a-half. An Extraordinary Theory, This has led M. Maurice Prax, one of the candid commentators, to admit that the allegation that it is foreign visitors who do all the spending in France obviously does not accord with the evidence, and to bitter reflections over the dangerous symptoms of a frenzy for spending at a time when the finances of the country, and, presumably, of the buTk of her individual citizens, are far from being in a healthy condition. But in those incorrigibly nationalistic quarters, which never can see any good in the foreigner, whatever he is doing, the holiday period has led to a campaign of criticism of a most extraordinary character. It is argued that the heavy depreciation of the franc has led to a practically parallel depreciation of tho class of tourist—one may read British tourist, for tho armies of visitors which descend on Paris at holiday times are mostly British—with the result that what might possibly have been an invisible importation of capital in the days of the wealthy tourist who spent a lot o! money has now become an invisible exportation of capital, as the lower-grade tourist goes to France and consumes a portion of the national stocks without leaving any margin for the benefit of France, and that those stocks generally have to be replaced at a higher cost by the native. It is even contended that it is tho foreign visitors who are greatly responsible for the continued inflation, as they have to bo given five times as many notes as the nominal value of their money, thus forcing up prices, while the extra consumption of foodstuffs compels additional buying from abroad, making further notes necessary. "Killing the Goose." The correspondent adds:—" A little further stretching of these arguments and it might be held that it is the tourist who is entirely responsible for the unsatisfactory financial situation of France! What the exponents of such re markable theories suggest as a remedy is that tourists should be compelled to pay a daily taxe de seiour as compen sation for the benefits which they are at present supposed to garner from their privileged situation. "But already the hotel proprietors of some of tho leading resort areas, notably the Riviera, are protesting against the new regulation which calls on foreigners living in hotels to pay an extra 25 per cent, on their room-rental as a guarantee for the payment of taxes, on tho ground that it will cause visitors to prefer tf.i l resorts of neighbouring countries. And the hotel industry is one of the main industries cf France, just as is tho commerce de luxe. The folk who wish 1o make France an enclosed area cannot hop* for much success, but their attitude marks a very nasty trend."