FRENCH CURRENCY CRISIS.
. Although the fall in British Government Stocks may not be connected with the currency crisis in Fiance and the heavy fall in the franc, the fact remains that the event may exert a considerable influence upon all international markets, including London. For some time past there has been a' flight from the franc, and a good deal of French money has come here. If, even without a devaluation of the trand, the 'crisis should be sufficiently surmounted to restore confidence in French currency, some of this money may be repatriated, in which case some selling of securities here on French account might occur. And even if the franc should be devalued, the same results might follow, always supposing that there was complete confidence in the new basis of valuaticin. The situation in France, however, is a complicated one; because the flight from the franc has been stimulated, not only by the effect upon the trade of the country of the fall in sterling, but also, and perhaps even, more, by. the huge deficit in the French Budgets, Any firm, handling of the situation will require, therefore, the establishment of a Budget equilibrium, and this in its turn will call for a considerable increase in taxation.
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