He promised that in the Budget for 1926 expenditure would
be covered by taxation. The unchecked issue of short-term securities would not be allowed to continue. When the balancing of the Budget had been achieved the Government would relieve the State of its banking functions. (This is a very important statement if it means what it seems to mean.) The balancing of the Budget would be impossible without large personal sacrifices, and the nation would be asked to make these sacrifices as an act of patriotism. Such difficult measures could not be successfully brought to a conclusion in an atmosphere of friction. The Government, therefore, had decided to appease religious opinion by keeping a highly qualified representative at the Vatican. The Paris correspondent of the Times justly says that though the language of the declaration was bold and energetic the actual statement of policy was timid, weak and obscure. The clear recognition, however, that the time has come when French finances simply must be straightened out and that delay will mean disaster was in itself admirable.
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