FRANCE'S FIRMER SPIRIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23228, 23 December 1938, Page 10

FRANCE'S FIRMER SPIRIT

One of several hopeful signs that France is becoming politically more stable under the Government of M. Daladier is given by the passing of the Budget in the Chamber of Deputies. A rule or convention exists that the Budget must be approved by Parliament by midnight of December 31, and too often in the recent past its appearance has given the signal for faction fights, political crises, financial reactions, and sometimes the fall of Governments. Even then the Budget has not always passed on time, the Government on more than one occasion having to adopt the device of stopping the Parliamentary clocks at five minutes to midnight and carry on the fight into a new year that it was pretended had not arrived. On this occasion, however, the Budget has been ratified by the Chamber ten days ahead of the customary deadline. The Government's success is the more remarkable because such unpopular measures were included as the readjustment of pensions, higher company and income taxes, increased excise on liquor, tobacco and petrol, higher telephone and postal rates, and the relentless pursuit of taxdodgers. Thus France expects to balance her ordinary Budget for the first time in years, to reduce the railway deficit and ease the strain of financing huge naval, ifiilitary and air programmes. While the Frenchman is famed for the thriftiness with which he conducts his private affairs, disorder and profligacy in State finances have • persisted through Monarchy, Empire and Republic. Acquiescence in a Spartan Budget may therefore be taken as a sign of the more responsible spirit animating French democracy in recent months, a spirit that a few weeks ago dictated the collapse and complete failure of the general strike called by the Confederation of Labour. It is going to mean much to Britain and to the peace of Europe if France makes an end of internecine strife.