On Monday the Council of Ministers approved the new Bill
designed to create an inviolable sinking fund to be administered by an autonomous ad hoc body of twenty members, including the Governor of the Banque de France, who will control the administration of the National Defence Bonds and the Treasury Bonds. It is intended to summon the National Assembly (i.e., the Deputies and Senators in joint session) to meet at Versailles and incor- porate this measure in the Constitution. The chief effects of this unusual step should be to impress the nation with the seriousness of its national finances and to create confidence by .a national command of " hands off " directed against subsequent Governments and chance Parliamen- tary majorities. The floating debt is to be reduced by the device of funding the tobacco monopoly.
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