FRENCH CRISIS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1933, Page 7

FRENCH CRISIS

PEOPLE LOSE CONFIDENCE MANY EVADING TAXATION HOARDING OF GOLD COMMON BRITAIN ADVANCING LOAN ‘IN HANDS OF THE ENGLISH’ By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, April 30. France is in a precarious position, says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Express. People are. evading taxes and have lost confidence in their banks, while the British banks are thronged with French depositors. French fanners bank their own money and it is estimated that £100,000,000 is lying useless in orchards and vineyards arid that more millions are deposited in household safes. Yet France is obliged to borrow £30,000,000 frojn England. Exporters desire France to go off the gold standard, but the Government will be unwilling to part with the last shilling of its prestige. A British bank group has been negotiating a £30,000,000 loan to the.. French Treasury at 2J per cent., repayable m six months. This is a . private transaction not connected with the equalisation loan, but is in order to counteract pressure on the franc when the slow influx of tax returns necessitates shortterm borrowing. “France is in the hands of the lish,” says the Figaro,- criticising the London bankers’ loan. M. Paul Reynaud, ex-Mmister of finance, regards it as a bad piece of news for those who flattered themselves that the financial influence of France was a factor making for peace. He adds that the Government is merely postponing the day of reckoning. A later message states that the British loan to the French Treasury is confirmed. It will be made by a group of banking houses organised by Lazard Brothers and not by the Bank of England or the British Treasury.