Finance by Lottery

So tight and hard to borrow were francs last week that knife-faced Finance Minister Georges Bonnet was driven to a bold expedient to pry them loose.

On July 4 he had offered a two billion-franc issue of French Treasury bonds, saying that to sell them would be easy. Last week these bonds were still being advertised. The issue, instead of having been snapped up, seemed almost a failure. M. Bonnet, who had talked of offering three billion francs of additional bonds next autumn, suddenly went into a fiscal huddle with the whole French Cabinet.

The bad news leaked fast. M. Bonnet proposed to launch the first national lottery since the War. Proceeds will be split 40% to the Treasury, 60% to lucky ticket-buyers. The Cabinet, reluctant to issue a statement, merely made known that M. Bonnet is authorized to go ahead with his lottery by an obscure clause tucked into the Budget passed last month before the Chamber adjourned. To ease their consciences, French Deputies specified that the lottery shall continue only during the present year and shall provide for payment of the first 100,000,000 francs raised to "destitute families, the victims of agricultural calamities and droughts."

To persuade prospective ticket buyers that there will be no crookery, Finance Minister Bonnet assembled last week an imposing Lottery Commission on which veterans of national prestige will sit with Governor Clement Moret of the Bank of France. As an innovation, winners will pay no income tax on their gains.

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