LEE & TAI PING
LEE THEATRE DAILY AT 2.30, 5.15. 7.15 & 9.20 P.M..
TAI PING
DAILY AT 12.30, 2.30, 7.15 & 9.20 P.M.
SHOWING TO-DAY *
PEAK FILM PRESENTS
"SPRING LIGHT”.
DIALOGUE IN MANDARIN
LEE THEATRE
予歐 倩陽
NEXT
ATTRACTION
SMART GIRLS DONT TALK
VIRGINIA
MAYO BENNETT HUTTON
WARNER BRUS. HIT .......... TOM IYANDREA - IZICHARD ROGER
SHOWING
TO-DAY
KINGS
RICHARD BARE
At 2.30, 5.15.
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1949.
LES FAIBLES
A TRAGEDY OF INFLATION
MILLION and a quarter French people are listed -on the country's official registers today as "les econo miquement faibles"-the econo- mically weak. They are men and women over 65 whom inflation hus reduced to the extremes of poverty, often after 40 years of work.
tha
or-
And all over France, the "petite bourgeoisle"--the middle
to classes have begun ganise. They have formed a national committee embracing federations of small landowners, one-man business proprietors,
artisans, architects,
lawyers
and chemists, with a member- ship of a million.
Because their varied interests are often unsuited to joint ac- tion, they may have a hard time defending their cause. But their leaders do not consider the cause is lost, for there is one common
interest among these middle class groups: not to end up, at 65, by being un- other generation of the econo- 7.20 & 9.30 p.m.mically weak..
YOU'RE WANTED BABY for Murder Wanted
But guilty, or not, you're my kind of woman!"
ROBERT MITCHUM
JANE GREER
in
Out of the Past
With
KIRK DOUGLAS RHONDA FLEMING-RICHARD WEBB
GE, STEVE ŽRODIE - VIRGINIA HUSTON PREMIU
Produced by WARREN DUFF-Disc?#BÂY JACQUES TOURNEye sormillaya, GESTOPIANOWEY
Also Latest Walt Disney Colour Cartoon "DRIP DIPPY DONALD”
PRIENTAL
TAKE ANY EASTERN TRAM CAR OR HAPPY VALLEY BUS -FINAL-SHOWING TO-DAY:-2.30-5.15-7,20 & 9.20...P.M.
COLOR BY
M-G-M's TECHNICOLOR
Judy
MUSICAL TREASURE!
GARLAND
Geni
KELLY
THE
PIRATE
'BIG NEW SONGS BY
·COLE PORTER.
WALTER SLEZAK GLADYS COOPER REGINALD OWEN SCOLE PORTER
A Metro-Goldwyn-Maye Picture
NEXT CHANGE: "MAN FROM DOWN UNDER"
CENTRAL
270, QUEEN'S RD. CENTRAL. PHONE 25720. TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.15, 7.15 & 9.15 P.M.
HERBERT LOM
PHYLLIS DIXEY
·TERENCE DE MARNEY RONALD FRANKAU.
DUAL ALIBI
Produced by LOUIS H.JACKSON Birected by ALFRIO.TRAVERS.
The
Perfect murder
Two World Wars, plus infla- tion, have placed the little people of France in this posi- tion. By exercising a major French virtue thriftiness millions of them used to be able to fulfil their dream of retire- ment to a small house, a small plot of land, and a moderate income.
turned the Inflation has dream into an economic night- mare. To be classed as "econo- mically weak" means an annual income of no more than US$200 per person, or, $330 per couple. This is the new "liberalised" figure which is expected to in- crease the list of economically weak to more than two million, all of whom are entitled to 1200 francs a month (about US$4) in government assistance.
Multiplied By 100
IT makes little or no differ-
ence whether these people once invested their savings in property or in Government bonds. If dependent on rentals, they have had to face a cost of living multiplied by 100 since 1920 and 20 times since 1938, while rental lawa until recently have
permitted increases of only five to 10 percent.
Rents are to be jacked up somewhere around 33 percent this year, with a complicated computation of living space. height of ceiling, position and so on which nobody seems to understand, least of all the land- lords. Generally speaking, rents were so low in France that to- day a man easily spends two or three times for tobacco in a week more than he pays his landlord.
*
by ROSETTE
HARGROVE
There's a non-shooting revolution going on in France today. Principal victims are two classes: the "economically weak" and the white collar class. Their the plight enfeebles structure of the nation at a time when it is under attack from the Communista. Rosette Hargrove, who has covered the postwar all of nearly story European countries, sends from Paris Д
picture close-up
of
A stricken economy.
★
The farmer is the biggest winner. and he represents nearly half of the 40 million Frenchmen. His ston dard of living was never so high. He now eats meat every day where- na before once or twice a week was the maximum, which is said to ba part of the reason meat is so ex- pensive to city dwellers., No Go- vernment has, yet dared to tax tho farmer, nor compel him to deliver his goods to the markets.
salary
"Economically weak" aged people are not the only big sufferers. The middle
fixed classes-especially white-collar
groups are finding it hard to make ends meet. They cannot escape taxation, since their employers deduct it from their
The pay
of the middle position
well 18 professionals classes, na
and en- such as doctors, dentists fincers, becomes less and less en viable na more Industry is - ma- tionalised and social Insurança schemes are extended.
middle- To millions of French class couples like Anne and Andre Chaumont, life today is misery in a white collar.
Most of the privileges once avail- able to the "petite bourgeoise" are hopelessly beyond their reach. But their inflation-bred hardship is not the "rags and tattere variety. Most of them are too proud to ask for help; they keep their homes clean, dignified, and even attractive, and their clothes are spotless because they have to keep up white collar appearanceR,
Of
This explains why a census ⭑
young middle class couples today would 'revent that most wives have had to take a job to make ends meet. In better days, when a French girl married, to stay at home and raise a family. A wife only went to work in ex- ceptional cases where she had a profession or business prior to mar- rlags.
There are hundreds of thousands "of uld people in France who own the homes in which they live, but who face slow starvation on pill- Incomes. Reluctantly fully small
prized they
to sell are obliged pieces of furniture and jewellery. Antique shops have never been no well supplied nor so busy; who have
meney aro their francs in antiques, while the ex-owners are forced to enroll on the lists of the economically weak. A life annuity was another for mula much
with int favour
of independent
After means who World War I derived an income of francs n year (once the ivalent of
US$3,000 but now barely $50) could live very com- fortably. Today, a couple spends that much in a month just to keep body and soul together.
the
French before inflation. A person
For those who invested all their savings in the Government, the State has been obliged to step in. Such people, over 85 and whose yearly Income to below
100,000
france, have had their annuities In- creased, but only up to 100,000
francs. No provision has been made for persons drawing annuities from private sources.
The cost of food in France thirty. even twenty, years ago wns ad- mittedly low, which explains the small annuities. In 1915, 10-franc note bought 50 pounds of bread. Ten years ago it would sul buy six pounds, while today it buys a little over one-half pound.
although Workers fare better, their wages keep getting behled prices. If they have children, how- ever, they bencilt by family al- lowances. Three or four children
under 14 means US$40 to US$60 a month extra. Under the State sys- tem, workers get free medical care and unemployment benefits. They also get two to four weeks vaca- tion with pay and are ensured a
modest pension. Finally, their ren- tals are incredibly low.
Andre and Anne Chaumont: They can put down what they'va
spent, but it adds up to "misery in a white collar."
NANCY
Dissenter
DOUBLE FEATURE TODAY
ADM;
50
she expected
Doing Without NOTн Anne and Andre Chaumont have jobs, and their combined salaries, back in 1930, would have enabled them to enjoy all sorts of do amenities which they have to without today.
com-
They could have rented a fortable apartment instead of a tiny three-room, walk-up flat without bathroom or closet space. Anne Chaumont would not have to leave her baby in a creche from 8.30 un- ril six at night five days week. They would not have been obliged to do without all those little ples- zures which bring colour to every- clay lives, nor count every franc. Above all, they would not have had
to spend nearly a third of their monthly income on food as they do today to live very frugally.
France's "petite bourgeoisie:" Two World Wars and inflation-- · have made the old people, like the woman in 'the right foru». ground, economically weak, and have made the younger genera«- tion behind her organise against a similar future.
(US$4) and two pairs of shoes: (US$6).
luck" because Anne buys just enough for her small family,
Because they have friends who After deducting US$5 monthly for
own a large villa at the seaside, insurance-life and nccident, bity the Chaumonts were able to spend cle, fire and endowment for Mare their entire month's vacation there. on his 21st birthday and barring Even so, their vacation cost them such as a US$80 plus US$25 railway_fare (in- emergency expenses broken window, electric light bulbs, cluding the 20 percent official dis- cleaners' bilis, etc., the Chaumonts count for all workers). have a credit balance of about US$00. This has to cover clothing, vacations and the renewal of house- hold supplies.
12 On week-ends, they travel
Andro miles out of Paris to visit
who Chaumont's parents,
own a small house. Once every throo months they go to a concert or a theatre.
Clothes are An Important and
In necessary item
a middle-class budget. Both Andro and Anne Chaumont have to be neatly dressed
Despite the many mcrifices they to hold their jobs. Andra had to
endure, the Chaumonts plan to buy a new suit this autumn for the have at least two
more children. office US$50-plus rain-coat. What they both hope for is a sense US$40; two pairs of shoes, US$18; of security in a future devoid of
and under
war scares and threats of civil war, two shirts, US$10, and clothes, US$4. Anne's clothes ques- a world in which they could live tion was caster. She makes all her and work with a mind at pence. summer clothes, wears neither hat nor stockings nine months of the The Chaumonts are fully aware.
second- year. This year she bougor US$13; social revolution
gone through o that France has
their so far as band dress from a friend
new social condi-
a woollen jacket, US$20; two pairs class is concerned. They accept the of shoes, US$14. Yard goods, rayon levelling which stockings, and knitting wool cost her tions have brought about philoso- US$28, cosmetics another US$6. So phically, and are sufficiently realis- for she had made all of baby More's tie not to attempt to "keep up a
If anything, they clothes from old dresses, but this front." year she had to buy him a cont Gaullists at heart
No Proof Of The Supernatural
By Robert Musel
are
THE psychic world has been the important fact that the prince
shaken by the contention was not killed.
De West recalled the case of
McConnell, of a brilliant young investiga- David
a Royal Air Andre Chaumont (36) and bis
was killed in a wife Anne (34) come from families tor that despite 70 years of Force Bier who
Both research, it still needs more crash at Tadcaster at 3.25 ml on of engineers and professors.
and evidence to convince science December 7, 1918. At that moment, sound education
miles away, at his base 00
his received were brought up in relative cem that there are such things as friend Lieut. Larkin was reading. fort. Andre is an accountant in a supernormal happenings.
Larkin heard a familiar clatter, the large household appliances Arm and
door burst open and McConnell
a
Os US$54 a month. Anne is a Into the paranormal class Dr D. looked In and en worker and earns more than
socini
Jusband.
J.
West
in
ECHO,
and
พอส
called, "Hello, lumped premonitions, boy!" A few minutes later Lieut.
dropped Her husband-US$80 a month. On apparitions or ghosts, telepathy and Gamer-Smith
that come true. The Larkin told him McConnell their combined salaries they pay dreams US$0 in taxes-income and social essence of this report, published by back. When they learned--later security-which leaves them US$125 the Society for Psychical Research, is that McConnell was dead, Larkin
case refused to bellove it. They are not entitled that there is no unshakeable
REMARKABLE EFFECTS
month net.
to the family allowance of US$8 a for any of the categories,
child (their month for their first can is 18 months old) because both are at work.
Dr West considers that the best
In criticising or pointing out tho. possibility of error in some of the case of its kind but pointed out classic cases usually presented as
nation. At least, the copper-riveted evidence of paranormal events, Dr that it could have been a halluci- West emphasised that dreams De evidence that it was not hallucina- casionally do come true and that tlon is not available. Hallucination,
ho cheap by telepathy does work on occasion.
he understands that there is effects.
no adds,
Rent represents US$1.50 a month. Even with the 33 percent rent in- creased to be applied this year, it will still be ridiculously any standards.
But he
if
know what I can spend within u Millions of people are thinking of couple of hundred francs, so what's other people, so it is likewise not the use of a budget?" she asked.
that there surprising "Every night after dinner my hus-"telepathie" contacts.
CLASSIC CASES
Dre some
band brings out the account book and we both go over our day's ex-
Dr West, who has done intensive penses. 1 do my daily shopping when I come home from work." Investigation Into alleged mischieve
can produce remarkable
unassailable evidence,
to
Dr
no evidence that it happens outside With the hope that investigators the usual mathematical laws of
DL would make rester efforts No Fixed Budget
millions of peo- obtain probability. Thus NNE, Chaumont confessed she plo dream every night, it would be
of these dreams West related the case of the pre- And no dixed monthly budget. "I unusun is inde with an
event. sident of a small club which met once a month in Enginnd. At the time of one mecting the president
Wis very ill, and while the other mem- bers were discussing business they were startled to see the death pale figure of their president walk into the club room and lake his place in the vacant chair.
The apparillon looked about in poltergeists and
then rose Gas, electricity and heating (coal ous ghosts called
other psychic phenomena, does not silence for a moment,
The members for the living room stove) cost them feel that such inquiries should be and walked out. around US$4 per month.
25 For
ended. He said the few excep- talked over the visitation and next cents apiece they have a substantial tonal examples de strongly suggest morning learned the president had midday meal at their respective
ve a psychic
" and it is died at about the time they thought which makes US$5
explanation, canteens,
the duty of investigators to see that they saw him.
Dr West zald the Incident month; US$7 more Rocs for zon final proof either for or against the Mare's creche, while US$4 goes to theory is produced.
created a tremendous furoro and tho ghost wards shoe and bicycle repairs. Among the classic cases examined affidavite attesting to Another. US$5.50 goes for
But later a nurse Anne's by Dr Went is the dream of a Dutch were drawn up.
that she had left
tho car-fare.
woman in 1037 that Prince Bern- confessed Although the Chaumonts cat hard of the Netherlands would be patient's bedside to go to a nearby frugally, Anne Chaumont reckons killed in a motor, accident. She shop and that when she returned on between US$34.50 and $30 for wrote a letter about the dream to she found his bed empty. He came food' alone each month, just for the a Dutch psychologist, and two days back soon, however, collapsed, and dared to reveal Once three, of them.
In a great later Prince Bernhard was involved died. She never while they entertain their respective in an accident roughly as the what happened for fear of ruining: families to dinner, but seldom ask woman had dreamed it. Howover, her professional reputation. friends to drop in and take "pot there were differences, including So the "ghost", was a real person..
·
By Ernie Bushmiller
IT
WHAT
AIN'T
AIN'T
60. LADY
SO-?
POPULAR PRICES
DON'T ITCH IT?
Fitch 17
Ennever SHAMPOO
YOUR PRICES AIN'T
POPULAR
SOLE AGENTS NAN KANG CO, UN BLDG MP