1936-07-14 — Page 7

Banque De

L'indo-Chine

Head Office: Paris

Hong Kong Office:

French Bank Building,

5, Queen's Road, Central

Cable Address:

INDOCHINE.”

Telephone:

*27583.

Manager: F. de COURSEULLES

MAM

MESSAGERIES

MARITIMES

FRENCH MAIL STEAMERS

Sailings from Hong Kong:

TO SHANGHAI KOBE

Aramis

24th July, 1936 Prez Doumer 7th Aug. 1936

Jean Laborde 21st Aug, 1936 Felix Roussel 14th Sept., 1936 D'Artagnan ..19th Sept, 1936

Agents for:

To MARSEILLES via Saigon,

Singapore, Colombo, Djibouti, (Aden), Suez, Port-Said.

Marechal Joffre 28th July, 1935- Aramis

11th Aug, 1926 Pres. Doumer 25th Aug, 1936 Jean Laborde 8th Sept, 1938 Felix Roussel 22nd Sept., 1938

"COMPAGNIE GENERALE TRANSATLANTIQUE” "COMPAGNIE AIR FRANCE"

Cie Des MESSAGERIES MARITIMES,

3, Queen's Building.

Telephone 26851.

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1936.

TO-DAY IS THE FETE NATIONALE

FALL OF THE BASTILLE LAID NEW FOUNDATION FOR REPUBLIC ABSTRACT IDEAS OF LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND

FRATERNITY BECOME REALITIES

DEMOCRACY ACCOMPLISHED FACT

made

the

LMOST any change of Govern-1 The population of France at the on bread

from ground ment nowadays is called a time consisted of about 25,000,000 acorns, bark and bran. The pea- revolution." It is one of those people, which we may divide for sants died off by thousands, while words whose continual use and purposes of argument into the the working people in the cities misuse has robbed them of most privileged classes and the others. huddied together and starved in

and attics--| of their meaning, like the "drama-There was a wide disparity in wretched cellars tic" “bombshell" and

and masses of rags "holo- their numbers and influence. The "sullen caust" so beloved of the joura privileged classes, consisting of misery," as one writer has called alist. But the French Revolution the nobles and clergy, numbered them. Some 25,000,000 wretched, of 1789 was at the time and for about a quarter of a million. They poverty-stricken, hopeless social many years later considered the owned half the soil of France; drudges, with little to wear and most remarkable in the history of they owned the castles, chateaux, less to eat, supported less than a the world. Whether it still holds churches, and buildings of note. million people in luxury. this distinction now is a debat-Despite their vast wealth they The borrevisie formed able point; for in very recent squeezed out of the peasants by third elsas. They stood between years revolutions-for want of a far the larger share of all they the two extremes of hopeless "out- better word-bave followed close produced, and accepted it purely casts and gilded aristocrats, and jupon one another's heels in Italy, gratuitously; the peasant was consisted for the most part of Russia. Germany, and Siam, obliged to work for his superiors well-to-do shop-keepers, lawyers, among other places; indeed, it is without pay. The peasant, more doctors, bankers and men of let- difficult to point to a single coun-lover, could not pass over a road ters. It was from this class that try which has been entirely un-with a sack of grain without pay- the leaders of the Revolution for touched by some revolutionary

the most part sprang, although a process in the years following the

remnant of the nobility, to their War. In England the first advent

credit, supported them in their of Labour Government

2.

fight, the best known of these pro- bably being Lafayette.

Was

come

Govt. Deficit Mounts Up The record of two centaries of French government is not pretty. It had been despotic, extravagantį and utterly oblivious of the suffer- ings of the common people Ex- pensive wars were. indulged in; magnificent palaces like Versailles were set up for no other purpose but to make a show of outward. Įmagnificence; the great mobility and clergy, the principal property owners, were exempt from taza-i tion, and the financial affairs of the nation went from bad to worse (because the misery and thriftless- ness of the common people made it impossible to extort more money from them after a time. The Gor- Jernment deficit grew from 50,000,- 1000 francs a year to 125,000,000 aj

rightly spoken of 23 à poli- tical "“revolution." To nearer our own day, the whole: of the New Deal in America and the astonishing powers given to President Roosevelt by the coun

at try were "revolutionary" in least one sense of the word.

But we are concerned with what is known to history as the French Revolution One writer has gone) so far as to say that millions of years hence, of all the political topics that fill our histories, the Trojan War and the French Re- volution will be the only events] that will be worth considerint. This is a rash"dictum which al- ready seems to be discounted; though it is a fault of people in: all times to consider their con- temporary history as being of particular importance, and to reading toll. All the offices of the year.

M. Jules Leurquin, Consul fot France in Hong Kong.

into it perhaps more significance Government and its revenues were This extremity led Louis XVI to than it is worth.

held by the privileged orders, who summon a meeting of the Not themselves were The Starting Point

practically abies, an ancient legislative body The French Revolution may be exempt from taxation. The higher representing the nobility. To them said to have started with the meet-places in the church were filled, he made a request that they should ing of the States General on May almost without exception, by the sanction the taxation of the pri 5, 1789, and it may be held to younger scions of the nobility,vileged classes. have closed either at the end of though about 40,000 humble The Notables refused and the the Directory in 1795 or at the end priests lived and worked among King sent them home. He then of Napoleon's consulate in 1804, the villagers. The princes of the summoned the historic meeting of It was relatively far more impor-jchurch used the vast incomes the States General, the general tant than the two revolutions from church property to maintain Parliament which had not met which preceded it. The English a social standing among their resince 1616, nearly two centuries Revolution was a mere incident, at latives, while they left their pro-before. It represented ail estates, the close of which the current of per work to hired assistants. the nobility, the clergy and the British history resumed its wont-

Incredible Conditions common people. In the meantime led

common the writing of such The condition of the volation, relatively, was 2 mere people-the people of the earth-Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau, and assumption of local government in France just before the revola-the influence of the American Be- The French Revolution was detion was almost incredible. Local volution, had aroused finitely something more. A power-famines were frequent, because ing people of France to the ful mobility, long surrounded by their meagre crops were destroyed notion that something desperate privileged power and wealth, was by rabbits, pheasants and deer must be done. overtamed but practically ami- which they were forbidden on pain The beginning of the French nihilated. The common people, of death either to molest or kill Revolution may be traced to the long oppressed and ignored, as-lin the rural districts it was rela-victory of an idea. When the sumed the reins of government. " tively common for peasants to live (Continued on Page 11)

course. The American Re

TMwer

*

the think-

Banque-Franco Chinoise

pour le

Commerce et L'Industrie

(Incorporated in France)

Head Office:

74, Rue St. Lazare, Paris.

Hong Kong Office:

Prince's Bldg., Chater Rd. & Ice House St.

Cable Add. “Geranchine"

J.

Tel. 281.75.

Manager: H. Jusserand.

ULLMANN & CO.

ESED, IN HONG KONG SINCE 1860

WATCHMAKERS

JEWELLERS

AND

DIAMOND MERCHANTS

SERVICE POSTAUX

CIE INDOCHINOISE DE

NAVIGATION

Adr. Tel. "CINDONAVIG

2, Rue Briere de l'Isle, Haiphong

HAIPHONG : HONG KONG

JEAN PATOU

PARIS

PARFUMS DE GRAND LUXE

Presents his popular perfumes:

Amour Amour

Adieu Sagesse

Moment Supreme

Invitation

NEXT SAILING

S.S. “CANTON **

17th July,

Pakhot Agencies Hoihow

Fort-Bayard

Pakhoi, Hoihow and Fort-Bayard, EVERY 14 DAYS- ON MONDAYS Agents in Hong Kong:

COMPAGNIE DES MESSAGERIES

9, Queen's Eidg.

MARITIMES

Tel. 26651.

SENNET FRERES

"PEDDER STREET

THE LEADING HOUSE:

FOR

JEWELLERY

Normandie

Obtainable from all Dispensarie

ipbuilding yard

"audic, seen above

North

and 3Department -Stores

iden voyage' to her newly befitg

ikan:10 hours, a fent

berth The ball4-

the vessel shattered the

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