13 MARCH 1926, Page 4

* * M. Briand bitterly exclaimed that the Chamber was

" congenitally incapable " of dealing with finance. M. Lamoureux, the Reporter of the Finance Commission, who ought to know as his Commission itself had treated M. Doumer's Bill very cavalierly, told the deputies that they were cowards. The essential reason for the unex, pected fall of the Government was that when a casual proposal was made to establish monopolies for oil and sugar M. Doumer, who was afraid of further offending the Socialists, thought it wiser not definitely to repudiate such a scheme. This was too much for the moderates, and in the division on the proposed tax on payments the end came for the Government. The tax on payments was the pretext but not the real cause of the disaster.