A PARIS LETTER

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19631, 18 July 1935, Page 2

A PARIS LETTER

FINANCIAL CRISIS. A HUGE BUDGET DEFICIT. (From a Correspondent). PARIS, May 30. Tuesday’s reassembly of Parliament will be a momentous occasion, for it will witness an effort, comparable to some extent to that made by M. Poincare in 1926, to re-establish the national finances on a sound basis. The situation is certainly one calling for heroic measures, and the investment of M< Flandin with dictatorial powers In economic and financial affairs will be an heroic measure. Estimates of the Budget deficit have gone on Increasing during the past few days, and it is now agreed that it is likely to'he considerably over £IOO,000,000. Apart from this, there' is the disquieting factor of a diminishing revenue. Tile procedure to be followed in dealing with the proposal to 'confer plenary powers on the Premier was discussed at yesterday’s interviews between him and the Presidents of the Senate and the .Chamber, as well as with M. Herriot, President of the Radical Socialist parly. There is considerable doubt as to the- extent to which the Socialists will oppose the Government’s proposals. This will he settled at a meeting of the group before the reassembly of the Chamber. As for the Senate, the majority of its members are known to be opposed to a Ministerial crisis—such as may, of course, conceivably arise in certain eventualities—and in favour of giving the Premier full powers.

Taxi Warfare.

With the reorganisation of the Citroen Motor Car 'Company, people here are expecting a new phase in the Paris taxi warfare. The latest development is the equipment of all the new taxis with wireless receiving sets. This attraction is advertised in prominent letters on the taxi windows and is offered free of charge, While hurrying from the Grands Boulevards to the Champs Elysees you can switch on to London, Rome, or Berlin,and hear the programmes tolerably well. You may be unlucky, however, and take one the numerous taxis whose wireless sets have already been broken by impatient passengers. Nevertheless, I am told by the drivers that the announcement of wireless on taxi windows increases the number of their passengers. To meet with the requirements of Parisians a taxi must also be streamlined and have a sliding roof. The first firm to bring out this type painted its vehicles crimson and black, In consequence, hundreds of taxi-drivers repainted their cars red and black to show that they were up to date, at least at a distance. Last winter another Important motor-car firm brought out a new taxi painted black and green. The model became so popular that owners of the red and black taxis were forced to scrape off the red and replace it with, light green.

Looking Backwards--

Among the most Important anniversaries being celebrated this year are the fiftieth after Pasteur saved the first human life from the effects of a mad-dog bite with his famous serum, and the fiftieth anniversary of Victor Hugo’s death. In honour of the former, it is proposed to name the district of Paris in which is situated the Pasteur Institute “le quartier Pasteur."

Special stamps have been issued to commemorate “Father” Hugo’s death; there are so many ceremonies organised that it is almost impossible lo enumerate then]. They are mostly under the patronage of the French Minister of Education, M. Mallarme, who, as President of the Victor Hugo Society in 1914, presented the statue of the great poet to Guernsey. A less known monument to Victor Hugo stands at Villequier, near Paris, at the spot where his daughter and son-in-law were drowned in the Seine. The Theatre Francals is producing several of his plays, and at the Opera a gala performance of "Rlgoletto” Is being given. Hugo’s tomb in the Pantheon is already covered with wreaths, and on the Ist of June will be commemorated bis lying in state at the Arc de Triomphe In 1885 before his triumphal national funeral, which many a Parisian still remembers. The Jardin des Plantes, where the Natural History Museum stands, is celebrating its three-hundredth birthday. These gardens became crown property under Louis XIII, receiving the title of "Royal Gardens of Medical Plants" in 1635. Up till the Revolution comparatively ordinary plants grew there, but with the Revolution the gardens went through difficult days, the remainder of the royal menagerie being transferred there from Versailles, and In 1797 it became a mere pastureland to save the bigger animals from dying of hunger.

—And Forwards.

Beside these reminders of the past, conjectures about the future take up a lot of one’s time. Plans for gigantic Air Displays and Night Folcs help lo take our minds off the much-talkcd-of rumours of war. Wo seem lo bo threatened not only by invasions from Hie air and gas attacks, in preparation for which gas-mask factories are getting a lot oi' advertisement, hut also by famine. Yes, the millers declare that they cannot work under present conditions, and the food-shops, if their demands for pricc-rcadjustmcnts arc not listened 10, threaten to close . . . happily only for one day.

However, the Paris restaurateurs, with their army of chefs and waiters, seem as capable of catering' for us as ever, and we can hope lo lie able lo enjoy “the best cruisino in the world” for somo lime lo come, although it is 100 difficult lo imagine where all (lie food and drink come from lo feed the crowds which 1111, in seemingly greater numbers each day, Ihc big rcslnuranls along the Champs Eiysccs.