New-York tribune., 1921-12-18
German Delays
Said to Shackle
French Finance
Failure to Make Good Sums
Pledged for Reconstruc.
ton of Devastated Area
Is Charged by Casenavc
Tax Resources Reduced
Speaker at Lawyers Club
Contends BRAND Govern
ment Deserves Praise

Responsibility for Frances present
financial condition was laid to Ger
many's failure to make good her rcps-
ration guarantees for the reconstruction
OF devastated France, in an address de-
livered by Maurice Casenave, secretary
general of the French delegation to the
Conference on the Limitation of Arma-
ment, before the Lawyers Club yester-
day.
NJ. Iasenave read statement of the
financial situation of France which he
prepared as an answer to $50 many
people who prefer to jeer or censure"
his governments handling of it. He
pointed out that 100000 of the French
people living in the devastated Sec
tions of their country could not be
taxed because they we're without re-
sources to pay and that their part of
the financial burden of the government
necessarily must fall on the sections
which were not destroyed and which al
ready were taxed 10 per cent, as against
total tax lcvies on the Germans Of 12
per cent.
obviously Germany has to paw for
the wrong she has done, but the fact
is she has not paid for it, NJ Casenave
declared.
French Budgets Defended
Considering the difficulties which are
surrounding France, he said, her or
dinary and extraordinary budgets
covering respectively expenditures nee
essary for the upkeep of the govern.
ment, administration, public works,
education, army, navy, etc., and ex-
penditures. to meet unexpected neces-
sites, which, once paid for, will not bt
reneWed"-~were in the best possible
The third kind of expenses, the
speaker said, incurred in order to pro-
vide for the reconstructed and devas-
tated regions and the payment of pen
slons, had been incorporated under the
name OF budget of expenses to be re-
covered from Germany"
Consequently, he added. these latter
expenses did not have to be covered by
taxation, as were the current budget
ary expenses. He continued:
The government has been re-
preached with having made use Of
financial Juggling instead of paying its
separations by means of taxation. AS
have explained before, France, since
the war, has been deprived OF about
one-fifth. of her taxable revenues by
devastation. The rest of France had
suffered from the war in proportion
and in other ways. Do you imagine
that, under those conditions, France
could be taxed without limit?p
Check Applied to Imitation
Reduction Of banknote circulation in
order to bolster np hebuying power
OF the franc Mr.. Casealave, said, was
averaging about S220D ,0On,bU0 francs
month. 80 that the total circulation
of the Bank of France has been dimin-
ished by more than 2,000,000,0O0 francs
Ill the last two years."
Chauncey NJ. Depew, in introducing M.
Casenave, who was tire guest OF honor
of the club, departed from a set speech
to urge that the United States "stop
playing politics with it's loans.' He
added:
"These loans can be used, think, to
stabilize exchange and give credit alb
solutely needed in Europe. Let them
be SO used. Our farmers are selling
their wheat and corn at one-half the
cost of rasing them. Open foreign
market and it will buy the farmers
wheat and corn at prices which will
make the farmers again prosperous and
happy. Thus can be paid bad debt
and an intolerablc burden lifted from
the world"