OCR Text |
Show BRISBANE THIS WEEK Spenders of Yesteryear Gone With Their Billions Paris Hotels Empty England Learns Also Europe learns that political ex-Deriments ex-Deriments cost money. England de- w cided to prevent Mussolini taking Ethiopia, camping camp-ing along the imperial im-perial British highway, and controlling Lake Tana, source of Nile water. The attempt failed. England backed out of that situation, situa-tion, hastily, after aft-er her war department de-partment had as- I , ' Bt ia sured our so- called war de- Arhur BrUb.n. partment in Washington that Mussolini could not possibly conquer Ethiopia in less than three years, probably not at all. When the dust had settled and England, with her chicken-feed assortment as-sortment of 51 league nations, had apologized to Mussolini and tossed Haile Selassie into the waste-basket, England found her foreign commerce much damaged. She had missed Mussolini, and shot herself in the pocketbook. For a little while she will copy Job: "I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once I have spoken . . . yea twice, but I will proceed no further." Paris, which is France, decided to sing and dance a new carmagnole car-magnole with Russian dressing; clenched fists raised in air a la Russe; red flag waving; the doleful dole-ful strains of the Communist hymn, l'lnternationale, and its Communist injunction, "Arise, ye prisoners of starvation," excellently sung from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Bastille. You can hardly imagine what fire, fury and enthusiasm thousands of young and old French gentlemen put into that hymn, although many of them showed few outward signs of starvation. There were, and are, manifestations manifesta-tions everywhere. Now in the chamber of deputies, Monsieur Gaston Gerard, practical French statesman, asks, "What has become be-come of our foreign tourists and their spending money?" M. Gerard tells the deputies something must be done. In 1927, 2,125,000 foreigners from all over the world visited France, spending much money. Visitors now number only 700,000; as a rule with little money to spend oysters containing no pearl; many that come to-help sing l'Jnternationale bring no money. mon-ey. Foreign visitors, says M. Gerard, Ger-ard, used to give highly paid employment em-ployment to half a million French men and women; spent 500,000,000 francs for French railroad and steamship tickets ; scattered throughout France from 12 to 15 thousand millions of francs. Fifteen billions, even in francs, are "real money" here. M. Gerard Ger-ard tells the chamber French prices jare too high. There is something in that, with the four-cent franc costing six to seven cents in the United States a comic-opera situation, situa-tion, considering the relative wealth of the two nations. M. Gerard thinks there should be some cabinet official to look after foreigners, with better propaganda and fewer vexatious taxes on foreigners; for-eigners; there is nothing in that, j Foreigners do not voluntarily travel and spend money where they ifeel they are not wanted. The cos-jmopolitan, cos-jmopolitan, educated Frenchman is jas polite and hospitable as ever, ibut ask him what sort of reception the crowd gives to the foreigner, j British especially. It offends the ! British ear to hear A bas les Ang-lis! Ang-lis! "Down with the British!" I An innocent American, in an innocent in-nocent average American automobile, automo-bile, sallied forth on July 14 to help ! France celebrate the destruction of ,the Bastille, and perhaps give a few feeble cheers for Lafayette, or IWoodrow Wilson, or somebody. I Great crowd in the Champs jElysees, especially around the innocent in-nocent American car, with new paint, shiny chromium and several cylinders. A polite policeman says monsieur should know better than ,to appear in a car of "grand luxury" on such a day. Such luxury cars you may see by the thousands and millions on American roads. Nothing happens to the car of grand luxury; it crosses the Ave-jnue Ave-jnue of the Champs Elysees, about 300 feet, in less than twenty minutes. min-utes. The French, newly self-iden-j titled as "prisoners of starvation," are interested in the auto American, Ameri-can, which is careful not to bump i anybody. The bourgeois, the "rich," an extinct ex-tinct species, although it does not yet know it, are nervous. In a vague way they feel that they are held responsible for all those "prisoners "pris-oners of starvation," with their strong voices, deep chests, powerful power-ful fists and pink complexions. King Fenturn Syndlct. lug, WNU Berrlc. |