* * * Last Saturday the French Senate completed the
passage of the Budget for 1925. There is a surplus " on paper " of frs. 280,000,000, but M. Caillaux has with outspoken courage tried to impress the nation with the truth, namely, that this is not a complete statement of revenue and expenditure. He has despaired of reaching a true balance this year or of increasing taxation in any degree comparable to the real needs, and the franc is now at more than ninety-seven to the E. To the uninitiated there seems to be the inevitable choice between further loans at exorbitant interest or a measure of inflation. M. Caillaux' plain speaking ought to gain .for him public support for his 1926 Budget, upon which he proposes to set to work at once, and to persuade his countrymen that it is of no use to go on juggling with the figures of the Dawes receipts or hiding the figures of expenditure on the devastated area and War pensions : that they must face the only sound principle of financial life, namely, to submit to taxation which will cover expen- diture.
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