Early last Sunday morning, after an all-night sitting, M. Briand's
Government fell. He had moved a vote of confidence on the question of the proposed tax on payments, and there was an unexpected junction of the Left and .moderate groups against him. Up to the last moment M. Briand had hoped that the Chamber was sufficiently alarmed by the monsters of its own creation to grant him M. Doumer's Finance Bill. But it was not to be, though the proposed tax on payments was infinitesimal compared with the taxation on industry which has been borne in this country. After the Senate had restored most of the taxes which the Chamber had rejected, it looked as though M. Briand was actually going to succeed, but the weakness of his position was that, though he threw out conciliation both to the Right and the Left, he did not conciliate the Right on foreign affairs nor the Left on financial affairs.
Previous page
