Page
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, MAY 29TH,
THE DISTILLERS AGENCY, LTD. LONDON, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW.
THE.
"TOP NOTCH"
+6
SCOTCH
KING
GEORGE IV”
WHISKY
Pint flasks suitable for picnics, etc, now obtainable `at 32 per flask duty paid.
SOLE AGENTS:
GANDE, PRICH & CO., LTD. St. George's Building, Ice House Street. Tel No. Central 185.
TER CLOTE-NOTH
ENGLARGED,
THE GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF A PIECE WOOLLEN MATERIAL ON WHICH A MOTH HAS LAID EGGS.
TRY OUR DHYCLEANING PROCESS BEFORE STORING YOUR WINTER CLOTHES AND HOUSEHOLD
FURNISHINGS.
Y
SEND IT TOI-
THE STEAM
LAUNDRY CO.
HEAD OFFICE & WORKS: Mongkok, el R32 HONGKONG DEPOT: 16, Stanley Street, Tel. 0. 1279. KOWLOON HOTEL DEPOT. KOWLOON DEPOT: 19, Canton Road PEAK HOTEL DEPOT. HONGKONG HOTEL: (Visitors only),
CAMMELL LAIRD & Co., Limg. Controlling THE LEEDS FORGE CO., NEWLAY WHEEL CO., Etc. Birkenhead. Sheffield. Nottingham, Birmingham,
Leeds, Penistone and London.
RAILWAY PASSENGER COACHES
FREIGHT & COAL CARS
STEAM DRIVEN RAIL COACHES
*NEWLAY” SOLID BOLLED STEEL RAILWAY WHEELU, 13. PEKING "ROAD, SHANGHAL
TRACK'
KEPLER'
MARK
84
WHEN INSOLVENCY PAYS. THE FRENCH FARMER AND THE
→ STATE.
[BY DIANA BOURBON.]
THE SEAMY SIDE TALES TOLD TO THE MAGISTRATE.
(a A. CORDEX.}
France at the moment offers a queer Richard Lewis, soldiar, tailor, inspector Optical illusions were the downfall of spectacle to anyone, able to look even an each below the surface apparent to the of hells, and writer of misleading ad- vertisements, who told the story of his casual tourist. Her Government is life ad Clerkenwell Police Court An solvent-but her people ate prosperous. Theoretically, the most crushing taxation pertaining anywhere except in Bagland has been voted; in practice agriculture is practically exempt, and only a per centage of the rest is ever paid-the Treasury continues empty.
intelligent looking man of 64, he said he had served as
a young man in the Egyptian campaign, rejoined the Army at the outbreak of the Great War, and chtained a responsible position and a pension of 15s. a week at Woolwich Arsenal.
The currency is worth a filth of its
But that was only a sketch of his face value, and is rapidly going down the drain altogether; but there is no unrective who read out a series of convic career. The gaps were filled by a de- employment in France (quite the reverse.
in fact) and no hardship except among tions against Lewis, including a sentence the poorer professional classes and those of five years' penal servitude for fraud on pre-war set incomes. Prices of every is 1808. His last lapse, however, was in 1909. Since that time he had gone commodity are constantly sonring to keep straight until recently, when he returned pace with the pound or dollar values yet to the evil practices of twenty years ago. French people still are able to buy,
In the e meluding words of an extraord nary conversation I had with a Freneb man a short time ago: "Consider the cast frankly England is heavily taxed, and the English are made to pay their taxes What is the result? The Govern- ment is solvent and the people are poor. We French never pay our taxes--with the result that the people are rich and the Government poor: Which is better??
BRIDING THE FARMER.
the people are rich. Take the case of the French farmer, for example. It is particularly interesting, because the English farmer, even on large scale, can hardly make both ends nicet, while the Frenchman (even on an allotment garden scale) makes money.
It is estimated that 62 per cent, of the total wealth of the French nation (as distinct from the French Government) is agricultural wealth. But it pays less than 11, per cent. of the country's taxes. In other words, the debt-crippled French Government makes a presens of virtual tax imanunity to the wealthiest section of the French community. • and with resu The prosperity of her farmers the backbone of the country-is of untold value to France-certainly far grenter. value than Treasury ability to compass the refunding of Zoreign debts.
France has grasped two essential facts in dealing with her agricultural situa- tion one, its primary importance to the nation as a whole; two, the necessity for offering the farmer a bribe (and a sub- stantial one) to make it worth his while to go on farming..
In a long speech from the dock the man of many trades attributed his criminal record to the harsh sentences he re- evived, beginning with two months for having been drunk and disorderly. The matter of a £1, cheque, he said, got him
1926
PIMPLES ITCHED AND BURNED
Face Disfigured. Lost Sleep, Cuticura Heals.
"My trouble started with a few pimples that broke out in patches Da iny face. They eventually cama to a head and broke causing great Itching and burning, which pre- vented me from sleeping. The breaking out excised great diang
tement.
"I cried well-known skin rem)--- edles but they did no good so I sent for a free sample of Cuticura Soap and Ointment. After using t the itching and burning stopped. 1 purchased more and in less than three, weeks I was completely healed." (Signed) Mrs. Elizabeth Wright, 11, B. Block, Pleugh Rd., Rotherhithe, Landon, S. E. 16, Eng. Use Cutiera for all toilet purposes. Soap and Cintment sold throughout the world. For sample each free address: 2. Fur her & Son Lady ki, Zazzer 30, London, 12. 61 Aim for mail orders with pries
*Try the Cuticura Sharing Stick
PRICE.
ON SALE.
the
thei
ve years, and when he came out of
MEETINGS of prison he associated with men who taught HONGKONG HANSARD REPORTS him the advertisement trick. By trade LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL for
tailor, he set up as an optician, and Session 1925. advertising for an assistant requested
Revised by Mambers. £10 as security. He got the 210, but failed to provide the job and was arrested` in bed at Islington at half past six in the morning Already he had been visited by tiliffs seeking to enforce orders in two other enses, hut as he lived in furnished rooms they returned empty-handed. Lewis, who promised to refund the money, was remanded for a week to give him chance to keep his word."
Mr. J. B. Sandback, K.C., the new ietropolitan magistrate, who comes from Manchester, was impressed by the veter- an's pathetic story and at the same time influenced by his shocking record," and Lewis's fate is in his own hands. If he keeps his word, he will escape prison, which he has avoided for nearly twenty years.
The new magistrate has a genial per- sonality and a musical voice. Of average height and fair complexion, he is more ready to smile than to frown, and his fines are on the light side. He has n risk, business-like manner, emphasised by a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles, and while he welcomes a jeke. I should say that he will stand no nonsense. He gave the impression that he knew his job.
Of the second fact the whole country is intensely aware the French commer rialists, who suffer from the tax-dis crimination in favour of the farmer, and complain of it; the French newspapers, who, because their circulation is chiefly urban, revile it the French politicians, who-tongue in cheek-excuse it on theness in the metropolitan area. ground of the wholly imaginary poverty, of the agricultural dasses! Most of all, the country people themselves, who are exploiting it for all it, is worth-astutely aware of their own value.
Laura Peacock had "put co her fine feathers to celebrate a holiday, and it was a pity that she spoiled an attractive outât by getting helplessly drunk, the penalty for which was half a crown. And that is the cheapest charge for drunken-
At whatever price, to the individual, to the State treasury, to the doctrine of just equality before the law-even before the tax-collector-special inducements must be made to keep a sufficiency of men on the land. It is known to everybody in France, and tacitly ignored, never pab lished or openly put into words by any of them. It is a whole national policy that is being faithfully followed, how ever loud the grumbling!
And see the result. While the franc is falling, the foreign debt marking time, and the same class of the people in Eng land fighting to keep the wolf from the doar, the French farmers are perhaps the one completely prosperous community in Europe to-day!
I bave travelled far sad wide among them in the fertile regions around Paris, where the business of supplying the metropolis creates wealth in the North, in the mountain districts to the Fast, and among the vineyards of the South and West, which are apparently so little affected by the withdrawal of Russia and America from the world. market for their produce that special legislation is being envisaged to protect the French consumer from the poor or adulterated vintages that are all the growers will reserve for the moderate national pocketbook.
I went, with a heartrending picture of hardship painted by a French Govern- meat official, in my mind's eye-looking for poverty, for stoic suffering, and hard. luck stories. And everywhere I was shown the new car, and heard how busi ness had never been better.
In farmhouses far and wide, isplated
Bill Bailey took a deep breath, and without waiting for the constable in the enre to give evidence, announced that he had not touched a drop of drink for eight" months and that he was suffering from epilepsy, neurasthenin, three small ports, and a loss of memory. The magistrate returned the broad mile of the constable, and added another half-crown to the coffers of the court.
Alexander Pinkerton also might have been in the half-crown queue had it not been for his wife. Mrs. Pinkerton wait. ed outside the court until a constable had told all he knew about Alexander's intoxication and bad language, and then she entered the wataess-box and added considerably to the court's knowledge. I am not a bad woman," she declared, and I can't stand his way.”
No, he does not knock me about; he never hits me," she said in response to an enquiry, "but he wakes up the chil dren and the neighbours, and he says he will swing for me." She got a sum mons for threats and her husband bad the choice of paying 10a, or going down
for seven days.
SPENDING MONEY
For the first time in history the French peasant farmer is spending money! Partly, of course, because he is subcon- seiously aware of the folly of hoarding a commodity that depreciates almost daily, partly because he has so much money to spend. He is, buying motors and pianolds, building new barns and tasting the joys of central heating. And
Where before the war a labourer saved on two franes a day," the curé in a village would tell me, now that he is earning fourteen or sixteen, his inclination is every time he has twenty france to spend
COD LIVER OIL with MALT EXTRACT in the depths of the country, L. found twenty-five and then look to charity to
Fortifies the
constitution and
brings children to
healthy maturity. Increases weight.".
Bottles of two sizga
4640
Enables people of all ages to keep.
fit: Fortifies the healthy and restores the jaded.
All Chestatu and Stores
Reduced facsimila
To keep your skin in health
HAZELINE' SNOW'
(Trade, Mark) All Chemists and Stores
BURROUGHS WELLCOME & Co., London.
Glass pots
All Rights RuïroRÉ
electric lighting, and a new central get him out of the mess." beating apparatus (price 5000 to 6000 As for the urban dweller, the "com- francs), which apparently every pensaat mervant noisily groaning under ever former in France had been installing, fresh burdens of taxation, the strange during last summer and autumn! And part is that he, too. always seems to have over a glass of cider in the kitchen out money to spend. You will see him in would come tumbling the figures of last the restaurants of the capital ordering year's record crops and this spring's ex- the choicest dishes and giving the largest cellent lambing-that make their appear tips.. The theatres and dance halls are ance in to recount books (the farmers are full-by no means exclusively of for too wily to keep themy and on no tax eigners and "the steady increase
private automobile traffic causes the Apparent hardship, of course, is easy Prefecture serious anxiety, and leaves to find. For instance, there was that England completely behind. bent old woman of 71 whom I saw doing
return.
in
As I hinted before, taxes may be legis- & man's work in the fields, in the pouring lated, but it does not always follow that
not
rain. But in the course of conversation they get paid. Paying taxes, in fact, is I found that she had just paid 3000 one of those things that in France francs to have her cottage redecorated among the best people is simply and one can remember when 2000 francs done" And many are the stories you would have seemed fortune, to be will hear in Paris, like this-true-one of guarded with life itself, to these people, a gentleman who yearly makes a return That as a matter of fact is one of his total income less than the amount national danger into which preferential' be pars in rent for his flat, and has never treatment of the farmer, together with yet failed to get away" with it. falling currency, seems to be driving France has realised that there is such France. A fundamental change in the a thing, as divorcing actual prosperity character of her peasants, whose out from national solvency, and that some standing quality for centuries has been times it is not a bad policy, though n thrift--but thrift raised to the nth juggling feat difficult to maintain. As degree; to the point, indeed, of extreme my Frenchman remarked, considering Prosperity of Government versus people which is better?"-Evening Standard.
avarice,
(Continued on rezt Column.)···
95
Dar Peisa OPTICE...
THE OCEAN ACCIDENT AND GUARANTER CORPOLATION,
LIMITED.
Issue Policies Covering
ACCIDENT AND ILLNESS MOTOR CAR AND OYOLES BAGGAGE (ALL RISKS PUBLIC LIABILITY
(GENERAL THIR BURGLARY, ETC.
Agents :
PARTY)
GILMAN & Co., Ltd.,.
44, Des Voeux Road, v Telephone Nn, C. 290.
124
THE NEW PREMOK, FAMEDI
..
THERAPION NO. THERAPION No. 2 THERAPION NO.
Na, 1 for Bladder Catarrh. No. 1 for Food & Jan DUN. 20. 2 for Chesula Wickramoon. KOLD ST TALDEA (DICIONES, PRAGS IN MOUSADA, I. IA. Lx Chanc
SL OR O, BEAR 2 Nro Yang, CUT 49. MAAT Örszer" BAY. PLANTIN
GREEN ISLAND CEMENT CO. LTD.
Best Portland Cement.
SHEWAN, TOMES & CO.
THE
GENERAL MANAGERS,
HONGKONG.
HE big outstanding fact about Kelvinator is its absolute reliability. Any Kelvinator owner will tell, you how thoroughly dependable it is.
Kelvinator is entirely automatic and is so well designed that it can be installed in any standard refrigerator. It is so efficient that it freezes ice for table ise and is an invaluable aid in the preparation of delicious desserts. It is guaranteed to give you the same complete satisfaction that it has for years given to thousands of housewives. Come in and see it or phone for literature.
795
CALL AT OUR OFFICE FOR A DEMONSTRATION.
HOLYOAK, MASSEY & CO, LTD.
Agents for Hongkong & 8. China,
AT
Messrs. Lane, Crawford's Hardware Showrooms,
The China Light & Power Co's Showrooms, 62, Nathan Road, Kowloon.
Established 1919
Kelvinator
Electric Refrigeration
The Original Mackay
60 YEARS AGO
The Firm of Mackay were the first told LIQUEUR
introduce WHISK Y
Its success has led to the existence of many inferior Brands offered under similar title, MACKAY'S THE ORIGINAL LIQUEUR WHISKY combines in rare age and choice Bouquet the perfection of Highland Whisky. & Healthful Tozio-it satisfies and leaves nooraving Used in the leading clube through out the world. Corta no more than ordinary whisky, d Unfainable from all the Leading Stores in the Colony, -WHOLESALE AGENTE-BRADLEY & Co. Ltd.
17