La Tribune de Madagascar
- On the Eve of the New Session
- For the Cheque
- The Complete Sanitation of Tananarive
This Madagascar paper looked at French politics as Parliament prepared to return. A column signed L. L. recalled the fall of Herriot's short-lived cabinet and Poincaré's national-union ministry, which ended a run of six cabinet crises. It noted Poincaré's hold over a broad majority but predicted early trouble over ratifying the London and Washington war-debt agreements. The paper also printed legal text on cheques: a holder's options when the drawer's funds fell short, fines of 500 to 10,000 francs for drawees who misstated the funds, and a narrow list of grounds on which a drawer could stop payment. A long hygiene article on Tananarive condemned household cesspits and 'Malagasy pits', made the municipality responsible for collective sewerage, and called for an all-to-the-sewer system.
Translation
On the Eve of the New Session
[?] All the rest is recent history: the experts' plan, M. Caillaux's trip to London, the fall of the government over the question of full powers, after a speech by M. Edouard Herriot, in which M. de Monzie was Minister of Finance, came before the Chambers on the 21st. It was overthrown that same day and, in the evening, M. Doumergue called upon M. Poincaré. What followed is remembered even better: the formation of the ministry of national union — from M. Louis Marin to M. Herriot — the success of its bills before the Chamber, and a massive majority, stronger even than that of the Cartel in its first days. This Chamber needed no fewer than six ministerial crises and eight Ministers of Finance to reach parliamentary stability. After a year of assorted experiments, the right, the centre and the left form a bloc opposed only by the extreme left and part of the Radical-Socialists. Is this stability ephemeral or lasting? Today is no occasion for prophecies. It seems quite evident that M. Poincaré exercises great prestige over his majority. He has succeeded in imposing on it many measures against which, before him, it had rebelled. But there is no use hiding from ourselves that the coming session will not be free of difficulties. One need be no great seer to foresee that they will appear as soon as Parliament reconvenes, over the ratification of the London agreements and above all of the Washington agreements. L. L. [?]
For the Cheque
[?] “If the funds are less than the amount of the cheque, the holder has the right either to receive payment up to the amount of the funds, or to refuse any payment. “If the holder accepts partial payment, he is required to note it on the cheque and to give the drawee a receipt for the sum paid. This receipt, issued as a separate document, enjoys, with respect to stamp duty, the same exemption as the receipt given on the cheque itself. “If the holder refuses any payment, the drawee must note on the cheque the amount of the partial funds, and these are frozen for the exclusive benefit of the holder. “A drawee who knowingly states funds lower than the funds actually existing, or who refuses to note on the cheque the amount of the funds, is liable to a fine of 500 frs. to 10,000 frs. Art. 3. — The following provisions are added to the law of 14 June 1865: Art 12. — Opposition by the drawer to payment of the cheque is admitted only in case of loss of the cheque or bankruptcy of the holder [?]
The Complete Sanitation of Tananarive
Among residues must be counted all waste water without distinction, that is to say foul water and the faecal matter accompanying it, washing water (baths, wash-houses, etc.) and certain industrial waters laden with organic or chemical matter. For all these waters it is therefore indispensable: 1° To forbid their being retained on any pretext whatever, whether inside dwellings or along the whole course of the pipes [?] 2° To ensure at all times a flow velocity in these pipes sufficient to prevent solid matter from settling. We absolutely condemn, from the hygienic as well as the economic point of view, the system of individual disposal, which is rather the absence of any system: it is impossible, in fact, to leave each house to rid itself of its filth; not only would it infect itself, but it would also infect the neighbouring buildings, the quarter, the whole town. It is therefore for the municipal authority to preside over the installation and operation of a general disposal system, that is to say one serving an entire group. It is quite evident that the hygienist must rigorously reject the long-term keeping of the waste of life: absorbent wells, soakaway pits (Malagasy pits), sumps, fixed cesspits with ordinary or hydro-barometric emptying, and individual or neighbourhood septic tanks will be rigorously prescribed, for it is impossible to endorse the adoption of a system whose purpose is to keep, in the subsoil or near each dwelling, the fermented excreta of its inhabitants. We can only replace them with the all-to-the-sewer system, which immediately removes all the putrescible waste of life from human dwellings and their agglomerations [?]
Context
Why the Washington debt accord threatened Poincaré's majority
The columnist believed Poincaré's national-union bloc, which he said was opposed only by the extreme left and part of the Radical-Socialists, would be tested first by ratification of the 'London' and above all the 'Washington' agreements. The Washington agreement was the Mellon–Bérenger agreement of 29 April 1926, which fixed the amount and rate of repayment of France's war debt to the United States. It greatly reduced what France owed and set relatively easy terms, but it was deeply unpopular in France: most French people felt that the United States should waive its claims altogether, and 20,000 war veterans demonstrated against it in Paris. Successive governments put off ratification, and none came in the autumn 1926 session the columnist was anticipating. The Chamber ratified the agreement only on 21 July 1929, after an all-night sitting and by just 300 votes to 292. It then ratified the Caillaux–Churchill agreement on France's war debt to Britain; the accord's name links it to the Caillaux trip to London mentioned in the column, which suggests it is the 'London' agreement the columnist had in mind. The columnist was right that the debt accords were dangerous ground for the coalition, but in the event the government avoided the confrontation for almost three years.
What the cheque provisions were meant to fix
The legal text sets out what happens when the drawer's funds do not cover a cheque. The holder may take partial payment, giving a receipt that enjoys the same stamp-duty exemption as a receipt written on the cheque itself, or refuse payment altogether. If payment is refused, the funds that do exist are frozen for the holder alone. A drawee that knowingly understates the funds or refuses to record them on the cheque faces a fine of 500 to 10,000 francs. The drawer may stop payment only if the cheque is lost or the holder goes bankrupt. Together these rules strengthen the holder's position and make the cheque more dependable as a means of payment. The excerpt says only that its Article 3 adds provisions to the law of 14 June 1865; it does not name the new statute. French legal history, however, records that laws of 2 April 1917 and 12 August 1926 made issuing a cheque without sufficient funds a punishable offence, and the timing of this printed text matches that 1926 reform. Cheque law did not stay unchanged for long: after it was unified at Geneva in 1931, France adopted a new cheque law on 30 October 1935. The principle of strictly limited grounds for stopping payment survives in French law today, which lists loss, theft and fraudulent use of the cheque among the only valid grounds.
Colonial hygiene and municipal power in Tananarive
The sanitation article's central claim is that waste disposal cannot be left to individual households. It places the job with the municipal authority and targets household methods such as soakaway pits, which it calls 'Malagasy pits', cesspits and septic tanks. (The word 'prescribed' in the printed text reads, from the context, as a slip for 'proscribed'.) The argument was made in a colonial capital that the French administration had built up as a centre of government and medicine. General Gallieni's arrival on 16 September 1896 gave Tananarive the status of capital of the colony. In the years that followed the administration founded a School of Medicine (1897), a Pasteur Institute (1898) and a medical assistance service (1899), alongside new streets and roads. Against that background the article speaks explicitly as a hygienist. It treats Malagasy household practice as a danger to the whole town and turns sewerage into a question of municipal authority rather than private choice. This page does not show whether the city actually adopted the all-to-the-sewer system it recommended.
Original
A la veille de la rentrée
[?] Tout le reste est affaire récente: plan des experts, voyage de M. Caillaux pour Londres, chute du gouvernement sur la question des pleins pouvoirs, après un discours de M. Edouard Herriot, dans lequel M. de Monzie était Ministre des Finances, se présentait le 21 devant les Chambres. Il était renversé le jour même et, dans la soirée, M. Doumergue faisait appel à M. Poincaré. On se souvient mieux encore de ce qui suit: constitution du ministère d'union nationale - de M. Louis Marin à M. Herriot - du succès des projets devant la Chambre, et d'une majorité massive plus forte même que celle du Cartel aux premiers jours. Il n'a pas fallu à cette Chambre moins de six crises ministérielles et de huit ministres des Finances pour atteindre à la stabilité parlementaire. Après un an de recherches diverses, la droite, le centre et la gauche sont un bloc auquel ne s'oppose que l'extrême-gauche et une partie des radicaux-socialistes. Cette stabilité est-elle éphémère ou durable? Point ne s'agit aujourd'hui de prophéties. Il semble de toute évidence que M. Poincaré exerce un grand prestige sur sa majorité. Il a réussi à lui imposer bien des mesures auxquelles, avant lui, elle se montrait rebelle. Mais il est vain de se dissimuler que la prochaine session ne sera pas sans connaître des difficultés. Ce n'est pas se montrer grand devin que de prévoir qu'elles apparaîtront dès la rentrée, à propos de la ratification des accords de Londres et surtout de Washington. L. L. [?]
Pour le chèque
[?] «Si la provision est inférieure au montant du chèque, le porteur a le droit, soit de recevoir le payement jusqu'à concurrence de la provision, soit de refuser tout payement. «Si le porteur accepte le payement partiel, il est tenu d'en faire mention sur le chèque et de donner au tiré quittance de la somme payée. Cette quittance, délivrée sur titre séparé, jouit à l'égard du droit de timbre de la même dispense que la quittance donnée sur le chèque lui-même. «Si le porteur refuse tout payement, le tiré doit faire mention sur le chèque du montant de la provision partielle, et celle-ci est immobilisée au profit exclusif du porteur. «Le tiré qui indique sciemment une provision inférieure à la provision existante ou qui refuse de faire mention sur le chèque du montant de la provision, est passible d'une amende 500 frs. à 10. 000 frs. Art. 3. - Les dispositions suivantes sont ajoutées à la loi du 14 Juin 1865: Art 12. - Il n'est admis d'opposition au payement du chèque par le tireur, qu'en cas de perte du chèque ou de la faillite du porteur [?]
L’Assainissement intégral de Tananarive
Il faut comprendre, parmi les résidus, toutes les eaux-usées sans distinction c'est-à dire les eaux vannes et les matières fécales qui les accompagnent, les eaux de lavage - (bains, lavoirs, etc...) et certaines eaux industrielles chargées de matières organiques ou chimiques. Il est donc indispensable pour toutes ces eaux: 1 ° D'interdire qu'elles soient retenues sous aucun prétexte, tant à l'intérieur des habitations que sur tout le parcours des conduites [?] 2 ° D'assurer en tout temps une vitesse d'écoulement dans ces conduites suffisante pour s'opposer au dépôt des matières solides. Nous condamnons d'une façon absolue, tant au point de vue hygiénique qu'au point de vue économique, le système d'évacuation individuelle qui est plutôt l'absence de tout système: il est impossible, en effet, de laisser à chaque maison le soin de se débarrasser de ses immondices: non seulement elle s'infecterait elle-même, mais aussi elle infecterait les immeubles voisins, le quartier, la ville entière. C'est donc à l'autorité municipale de présider à l'installation et au fonctionnement d'un système d'évacuation générale, c'est-à-dire desservant un groupe entier. Il est bien évident que l'hygiéniste doit rigoureusement rejeter la conservation à long délai des déchets de la vie: les puits absorbants, les puits perdus (fosses malgaches), les puisards, les fosses fixes à vidange ordinaire ou à vidange hydrobarométrique, les fosses septiques individuelles ou de quartier seront rigoureusement prescrits, car il est impossible de souscrire à l'adoption d'un système qui a pour objet de conserver dans le sous-sol ou dans le voisinage de chaque demeure les déjections fermentées de ses habitants. Nous ne pouvons que leur substituer le tout à l'égout qui éloigne immédiatement des habitations humaines et de leurs agglomérations tous les déchets putrescibles de la vie [?]