FRANCE'S HARD TASK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23233, 30 December 1938, Page 8

FRANCE'S HARD TASK

One aspect of the hard future France is facing, economically and financially, was emphasised by the Minister of Finance, M. Paul Reynaud, speaking in defence of his Budget to the Senate. The country, he said, could not continue on the present scale of living and arm herself. In other words the policy of "guns before butter" offered long ago to the German people is now being presented to the French as one from which there is no escape. It is a dismal truth nobody can argue away. So long as astronomical sums are being cast into what M. Ileynaud called the "abyss of defence," standards of living must suffer. Th© day of reckoning may be postponed by borrowing for the relief of present income, but eventually the bill must be met. However, so far as France is concerned, there is an accumulation of difficulties, the insatiable demands of the armament race being only a part of them. M. Ileynaud himself, in association with M. Daladier, made this clear over a month ago in a special report on finance, presented to the President. "It is our profound conviction," they wrote, "that fundamentally the economic question is predominant. But we believe also that unsuccessful policies have profoundly aggravated the consequences of the continuous deterioration of economic activity. Public expenditure has multiplied and this cannot be explained by the armaments race alone, for it is antecedent to it and has not fallen off since. ... If the country wishes to rehabilitate its position, it will havo to produce more in order to maintain its standard of living." These observations were pointed by figures showing a tremendous increase in the numoer of those looking to the. State for employment or for support as pensioners. A corollary was the proportionate fall in the numbers engaged in directly productive The final conclusion was that only by a return to the spirit of venturing in order to make progress could national recovery become possible..