In Paris particular attention is turned to the rise in
rents. M. Caillaux promises that the next Budget shall deal with this matter ; nevertheless the Paris Rentpayers' Association announces that it will "strike" next January. The first step apparently will be to refuse to pay rent in advance. The Association has about five thousand members, but one can believe that its membership would increase enormously if it successfully resisted the French • custom of paying rent in advance. The Paris correspondent of the Times gives examples of the prices of necessaries which have been arranged at Roubaix at a conference between tradesmen and consumers :- Butter is to cost lf. 75c. instead of 2f. 100. ; coffee, 2f. 10c. instead of 2f. 40c.; eggs will cost 30c. less per dozen and bread 5c. less per 31b. In various other towns similar reduc- tions in food prices have been made. We notice with interest that a consignment of Australian butter is on its way to Marseilles from Melbourne—the first ever shipped to France. "All the French regulations," we read, "are being observed." It is precisely all those regulations in Protectionist countries which prevent a food crisis from mending itself quickly by drawing on new sources of supply without restraint here, there, and everywhere.
