The alarms expressed in some sections of the French Press
about the dangers of armed outbreaks in Paris need not perhaps be taken too seriously, but they accord very closely with news that reaches me from Paris through private channels. There are far too many revolvers in private hands in France, and though restrictions may be placed on the purchase of new weapons, the War left quite enough of them behind to supply combatants on a substantial scale. The Stavisky scandal has produced a strange state of nerves, and a chance outbreak might easily grow to something serious. But the general view, I gather, is that M. Doumergue (whose broadcast speech to the nation was evidence that the Government realized the need of some special appeal) has the situation sufficiently in hand to make any grave trouble unlikely.
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