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THE LIVING AGE

NUMBER 4023

AUGUST 13, 1921

A WEEK OF THE WORLD

FRENCH FINANCES

SISLEY HUDDLESTON summarizes the financial situation in France as follows:

I regret that I cannot in this article do more than pose the problem that is being discussed in all enlightened circles. Very briefly and roughly, France has this year to find at least 54,000,000,000 francs, and cannot possibly hope to raise in taxes more than 20,000,000,000. An extraordinary budget of over 3,000,000,000 is not balanced even on paper, while the special budget contains over 15,000,000,000 nominally recoverable from Germany. There is a public debt of 300,000,000,000. This year it is expected that subscriptions to treasury bonds will largely cover the deficit, and something may be received from Germany. But obviously France cannot live for long on loans. They must be consolidated, and then there must be some amortization. So far, it is proposed to launch a big consolidating loan in the autumn, to cut down state expenditure (including the abandonment of state enterprises and the reduction of the administrative staff), to stimulate the collection of taxes, notoriously inadequate, and not to impose fresh taxes unless they are shown to be absolutely necessary. It is possible by strenuous efforts to balance the ordinary budget.

But what of the pensions and reconstruction budget which must call for, say, 12,000,000,000 annually for eight years? Senator Cheron calculates that at the best five or six billions must be raised by loan every

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year, after Germany's contributions are reckoned. But cannot the German bonds be negotiated, and a capital sum thus be realized? More and more do I find opinion hardening against the selling by the Commission of Reparations of these bonds. They can be absorbed by the money markets of the world only to a limited amount, and probably enormous discounts will be demanded. France may prefer to keep them and to receive the interest and amortization funds from Germany each year, although an alternative scheme of issuing them with an Allied guaranty a sort of international loan is proposed. What is to be noted is that only the first 50,000,000,000 bear interest for the present; that is, precisely the sum offered by Germany. The remaining 82,000,000,000 will be scraps of paper of doubtful value. But nobody kicks any longer against the pricks. In my opinion it is a good sign that the financial position is being clearly stated: it is a return to reason and to realities.

Commenting upon the disasters which have befallen the Banque Industrielle de Chine and the Société Centrale des Banques de Province, said to have involved losses, according to the London Morning Post, of 230,000,000 francs for their shareholders, L'Humanité reports that the funds of these institutions were . gambled away in hazardous speculations, particularly in rice and silk. This journal seems to welcome these events as confirming its pessimistic diagnosis.

Copyright 1921, by the Living Age Co.

of the business situation, and its Socialist prediction that French finance will speedily collapse. It says that France is witnessing the premonitory shocks which precede final bankruptcy.' However, there may be more Socialist theory than business judgment in these prognostications.

The chairman of the French deputation to the Congress of the International Chamber of Commerce in London reports the total number of unemployed in France to be about 200,000, which is not a high figure compared with the number in other European countries. More than 50,000 industrial laborers are estimated to have returned to agriculture during the past year. Within twelve months the country's output of iron ore has increased more than forty per cent.

Agricultural production, which fell one half during the war, now nearly suffices for home-consumption. During the first four months of 1921 imports of manufactured goods- note that this does not include raw materials and food-dropped from 3,500,000,000 francs to less than 2,000,000,000 francs, while exports of manufactured goods rose from 3,900,000,000 francs to 4,500,000,000. But this has not materially increased the value of the franc, owing to the heavy foreign debts of France, to speculation, and to inflation.

Walter Duranty, the Paris correspondent of the London Outlook is not optimistic as to the strength of the Briand Cabinet. He says that there is a pretty general feeling in Parliament that the Premier's success in dealing with foreign problems 'is more superficial than real.' He reports that France is watching the Imperial Conference at London with alert attention. If the Dominion premiers are to dictate, or largely to determine, the empire's policy, what will be the effect on the Entente?

WAR'S AMENITIES IN TURKEY Le Temps describes the outrages perpetrated by Greek irregular forces, and, it says, by Greek marines led by non-commissioned officers, in the Mussulman quarter of Ismid, a port on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmora. Between June 24 and 27 about one hundred houses were burned and sixty people slaughtered. An American mission was protected by marines landed from one of our torpedo boats.

Rosalind Toynbee, writing from Constantinople to the London Nation and Athenæum in June, characterizes the Greek operations on the Marmora coast as 'a wholesale massacre of Moslems,' asserting that they 'equal in ferocity and intention the massacres of the Armenians in 1915, though on a far smaller scale.' Basing her estimates on her own observations as a reliefworker in this section, she says: 'Out of a Moslem population in this districtYalova of seven thousand, there remain barely fifteen hundred. . . . Out of sixteen Moslem villages, there are now only one and a half. The Yalova district is barely one quarter of the region concerned in this particular massacre; and, so far as I can judge, the numbers for the total region are in much the same proportion.' These massacres have been carried out by Greek irregulars, recruited mostly from the local population. This correspondent says that they were 'almost certainly armed by the Greek authorities,' and that she has seen their leaders in consultation with Greek regular officers. She adds: 'I do not suggest that the Greeks are more barbarous than the Kemalists; there is no doubt that the Kemalists behave very often in the same way.'

Describing conditions on the Greek front just before the recent offensive, Colonel Feyler, a Swiss correspondent,

estimated the Turkish forces at about one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, with two hundred and twentyeight cannon; though some of these forces were stationed at points too remote to count, either directly or indirectly, in the present fighting. The Turks have gas-shells, and apparently are in possession of new aeroplanes, presumably from the Bolsheviki. Most of the supplies received by Angora are landed at Black Sea ports.

WAR ETHICS AND CHRISTIANITY

A SPECIAL Correspondent of Kölnische Zeitung, writing from Tokyo in May, says that the effect of the war upon Japanese thinkers has been the reverse of its effect in Europe. Instead of overturning old standards and producing mental confusion, it has encouraged a return to ancient beliefs and a new clarity of thinking. "They gaze into the mirror of Buddhism and consider whether they did not fundamentally wrong their own native culture when they eagerly grasped at the mechanical civilization of Europe. To state it somewhat paradoxically, I might say Japan has become more JapThere is a return to the old longing for Nirvana, to what we Occidentals are inclined to call passivity.'

anese.

This correspondent relates an interview with Baron Goto, an eminent physician who has distinguished himself in public life, especially as Governor of Formosa. He is now Mayor of Tokyo, in charge of the ambitious project for modernizing that city with pavements, sewers, and model tenements. The Baron could not comprehend how the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were to be reconciled with the teachings of Christianity. He thought that Christ would be outraged by the Treaty were he to return to the world. Continuing, he observed:

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We Japanese have learned two great lessons from the recent events in Europe. Russia taught us one by its revolution; Germany taught us the other. We are discovering which is a good way and which is a bad way to revolt. Revolutions are inevitable in the life of a nation. The important thing is to turn them into useful channels. Neither Russia nor Germany has discovered that art. Had they done so, they would have reformed their system of education. In the same way that running water always seeks the deepest channels in its course to the sea, so will the impatience and violence of the people always seek the weakest points in a nation's laws and institutions. Those are the points we should seek to strengthen and improve. That is the task of the real leaders of the nation. I believe the method is to inspire the masses with a definite faith. A nation must have religion. A people must believe in God. . . . Asia's moral teachings seem to me about to acquire ascendancy over Christian morals, which have departed so far in practice from the common basis of truth, which both formerly possessed.

A BRITISH OPINION OF MEXICO

THE chairman of the Mexican Railways Company, Limited, reported at the recent general meeting of the corporation in London, the results of his recent visit to Mexico to inspect its property. He was agreeably surprised with the state in which he found the latter. Under normal conditions he expected it to be completely restored and returning fair profits within two years. He considered conditions much better than in 1900, 1908, and 1910. 'Prosperity was apparent in every direction, the population had largely increased, there had been a great uplifting of the lower classes, wages were high, employment was abundant, and the value of property was very high.' His observations were confined largely to Mexico City, Puebla, and Vera Cruz, but he believed there was a solid

rural background for this urban prosperity. Farms and sugar-plantations had suffered seriously by the revolution, but the mines were working to their full capacity. He was favorably impressed by the new government.

POLAND'S RAILWAYS

WE quote the following from the London Statist: ·

The Polish railways, which suffered heavily during the war, owing to requisitions made by Germans and Russians and destruction in the course of military operations, have constantly been improved since they were taken over by the Polish Government. The Minister of Railways has given some interesting information as to their working. The rolling stock is being gradu

ally improved and augmented, and large

additions have been made, thanks to the Inter-Allied Commission in Berlin, which has recognized Poland's right to have 481 locomotives, taken by the Germans during their occupation of Poland, returned to her. Of these, 182 have already been incorporated into the Polish railway service. In consequence of this increase in the number of locomotives, it has been possible to regularize the traffic between Germany and East Prussia, and to augment considerably the number of passenger trains on all the other lines as from June 1. The output of the railway repair workshops increased by fifteen per cent in comparison with the fig ures of the last year, thus making it possible to increase considerably the total number of locomotives actually in use. In order to balance the railway budget, the staffs have been greatly reduced, and the freights have been increased by some one hundred and fifty per cent on the average, which will mean an increase of revenue of some eight thousand millions. The passenger-fares were increased by fifty per cent July 1. Many of the station buildings and plants, which were totally or partially destroyed during the war, have been reconstructed and put in operation, while others are nearing completion.

STINNES IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

CZECHOSLOVAK papers are discussing with some alarm and hostility the extension of Hugo Stinnes's activities to that country and its neighbors. As we recently reported in The Living Age, Stinnes has acquired a large interest in the Austrian metallurgical industries. This will enable him to supply fuel to the Austrian smelters, taking part of his pay in their products. He is reported to be negotiating for lignite deposits in the Carpathian district of Czechoslovakia, and for certain undertakings in Hungary, thus bringing the frontiers of his industrial dominion to the very borders of the Balkans. In conformity with his programme of accompanying his industrial acquisitions by a vigorous press propaganda, he has purchased several journals in this region. Fear is expressed that Stinnes's influence will seriously weaken the economic independence of the small states recently established in Central Europe, and bring them under the sway of German capital. However, the depression in the metal-working trades through this region, due partly to fuel difficulties, is likely to make any change welcome to the laboring classes, which promises a resumption of activity. In Central Bohemia alone 30,000 employees in the metallurgical industries

are now idle.

COLORED TROOPS ON THE RHINE

A CAREFUL inquiry has lately been conducted in the occupied districts of the Rhine by a commission appointed by the Swedish Christian Society. It supports in the main the views of those who maintain that the general level of conduct of the colored troops compares favorably with that of other units. At the time of the investigation, there were said to be 24,000 colored troops in

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