PRICES IN FRANCE.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15308, 23 February 1920, Page 2

PRICES IN FRANCE.

ELECTION CAMOUFLAGE.

The result of the election had been scarcely made known before France was suddenly brought badk to a sense of the bitter'realities of the economic situation of the country (says the Paris coi respondent of the "Manchester Guardian"). These have been successfully camouflaged throughout the election campaign, but it is now no longer possible to conceal'the facts. -

The prices of many articles of first necessity have gone up with a bound. The keynote of this fresh increase in the cost of living was given by tne co-operative organisations and i-pGcially controlled shops, which were opened several months ago in every quarter of Paris, and fold to the public at dost price foodstuffs drawn from Government stocks, in all these shops the prices of many commodities which have remained stationary for several weeks past were raised at stroke by from 20 to 65 per cent. Thus the wholesale price of haricot beans sprung from ,5d to B£d the English pound, lard from Is lOd to 2s lOd, rice from 5d to 7 id, tinned salmon from 8d to Is 9d, a tin of condensed milk from Is Id to l-i 4d, while the price of coffee was raised 33 per cent. Retail prices to the consumer are 10 per cent higher to. cover1 the bare working expenses of the shops. According to expert opinion here, the cost of living throughout France will inevitably.during the next two or three months reach a much ijgher level than that of a month ago. It was then double the figure at which it stood at the date of the armistice.

One cause of the high prices there was disclosed in a case Heard at Beauvtiis. The accused made a practice of ottering to pay double the original price of 3s 3d per lb for any quantity of butter they could find, and of reselling the butter in the devasted districts at 10s to 11s per lb. Such practices have been widespread in France for months past.