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FRANCE: National Balance Sheet

3 minute read
TIME

Before Senate and Chamber of Deputies was laid by Finance Minister Clementel the national balance sheet of France. With the exception of countries which have declared themselves bankrupt, this is perhaps the first time that a Nation has voluntarily struck a balance sheet.

The balance sheet showed the state of France as at July 31 last year. Assets, which did not include unconvertible property, were listed as follows in round figures: ASSETS FRANCS

Taxes 596,000,000,000

Railways 70,000,000,000

Sarre Mines 1,400,000,000

Public Buildings, etc 10,650,000,000

Forests 5,300,000,000

Experts’ Plan Income 100,300,000,000

Actual Total 796,830,000,000

Liabilities, which did not include some 120,000,000,000 francs* owing to the U. S. and Britain, were listed in round figures:

LIABILITIES FRANCS

Internal Debt 278,000,000,000

External Debt 19,500,000,000

Pensions 64,500,000,000†

Reconstruction 22,000,000,000

Army 111,000,000,000†

Civil Service 146.000,000,000†

Miscellaneous 19,500,000,000

Concerning the debts to the U. S. and Britain, the Finance Minister made it clear that France expected to have the total of the debts cut; and he made evident the fact that the Nation would not be able to start repayments on account of them until Germany had paid considerable sums on account of reparations. Le Senateur Clementel also added that a reduction of France’s debt to Britain was soon expected under terms which Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston S. Churchill recently renewed.

The major note of the statement made by the Finance Minister was contained in a suggestion that all “War debts be pooled:

“The Interallied debts represent an exchange of resources, and register the movements which took from one country to another the funds which each in its sphere could supply. If we abandon the juridical plane and look oil the matter from the higher view of cooperation and fairness, strict justice would seem to demand a general pooling of War expenditures and their allotment among the allied States proportionately to the riches of each one, and without taking count of the particular engagements which the necessities of the moment imposed. Thus only would be realized an equality among all in the total of sacrifices.

“And if the contribution of each State to the common victory could not be weighed against the blood which was spilled, at least France could hope that the rank she occupied on the long list of sorrows and devastations would give her the right to legitimate concessions in the domain of compensations.”

In support of this argument, M. Clementel argues that the Allies— France, Italy, Belgium, Britain, the

U. S.—were fighting for themselves and that France should receive as compensation a debt-cut in recognition of the fact that the fight was carried on principally on French soil.

Although a reduction of the U. S. debt is strenuously advocated on the ground of justice, the Finance Minister declared” that “France does not intend to repudiate any contracts she has made, and her signature always will be held sacred. But she is convinced that an appeal to the sentiments of justice which grouped so many Nations around her in the War will not be in vain, and she is convinced that her allies and friends will respond to the hopes she places in their conscience and their sentiments of justice and solidarity.”

A loophole was thus made to meet the U. S. contention that business and sentiment, like oil and water, will not mix.

*The debts to the U. S. and Britain are

payable respectively in dollars and pounds sterling: U. S.. according to French figures, $3,583,655,231.96; Britain, £619,000,000—about $2,909,000,000.

†These figures represent sums capitalized at 5%—a method of converting annual payments into an actual sum to hand.

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