STERN DUTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23542, 30 December 1939, Page 7

STERN DUTY

FRENCH CITIZENS MANY SACRIFICES SEIZURE OF WEALTH NO MORE LUXURIES By Telegraph—press Association —Copyright PARIS, Dec. 2S The Minister of Finance, M. Paul Reynaud, speaking in the Senate in the course of a debate on the Budget, said that during the year the volume of production and exports had increased 20 per cent, while unemployment was the lowest for six years. Capital had steadily flowed back to France, and the return in the year totalled £.340,000,000. Social order had been restored, and the civil Budget would be balanced. All expenditure would be met by taxation, including £118,000,000 for indirect war expenses. Other war costs would be met by loans. In outlining the extraordinary financial sacrifices demanded of Frenchmen, M. Reynaud said: "The State has thrown itself upon wealth and individuals It has seized not only wealth but instruments for creating wealth. All future increases in civil expenditure must be demanded of the taxpayer and all increases in military expenditure of loans. "This ruling will control our budgetary policy for the length of the war. It is the citizens' duty to save, still more to subscribe, still more to economise and give their savings to the State and to forfeit daily luxuries in order to make France stronger. "The buying power of citizens must be reduced. Suppression of buying will not dry up production because wartime production is different from peacetime production."

NAZI PRESS VENOM M. DALADIER ASSAILED RECENT SPEECH OFFENDS SWIFT ONSLAUGHT THREAT COPENHAGEN, Dec. 28 For the first time since the outbreak of the war the German press directly and violently attacks the French Prime Minister, M. Daladier, declaring that his speech last Sunday aligns him with the worst warmongers of Britain, says the National Tidende. M. Daladier is called "poison monger, blasphemous liar, first-class murderer, and Public Enemy No. 3" (Mr. Churchill and Mr. Chamberlain, of course, are Public Enemy No. 1 and 2 respectively). The Borsen Zeitung says the answer to M. Daladier's speech will be a lightning onslaught and relentless war.

SCOUTING FLIGHT NORTH-WEST GERMANY ROYAL AIR FORCE CRAFT ONE FAILS TO RETURN LONDON, Dec. 29 The .Air Ministry announces: "A successful reconnaissance of north-west Germany was carried out by Royal Air Force aircraft on Wednesday. One of our aircraft failed to return." A Berlin Command communique states that two British aeroplanes attempted to fly over the German coast. A figlitinp; aeroplane shot clown one, while anti-aircraft fire drovo off the other.

WESTERN FRONT LESS ACTIVITY REPORTED GERMAN MINE KILLS OWN MEN (Received December 29, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 20 The French official war communique states that there was reduced activity of contact units on the Western Front yesterday. It is reported from Luxembourg that a German mine exploded near the ruins of the Schenger Bridge, which was one of the two blown up on Wednesday by German engineers. The Germans later were seen removing the bodies of several soldiers. The Lord Privy Seal, Sir Samuel ITonre, and Lord Hankey, a Minister of the War Cabinet without portfolio, visited the headquarters of the Royal Air Force in France, on the way to the Maginot Line from Paris. The newspaper Petit Bleu states: "The war has cost France 1434 dead and Britain 2511. Our British friends offer not only machines, but they offer themselves."