La Tribune de Madagascar
- The Tax Position of Foreigners in France
- At Public Works
- At Djibouti
La Tribune de Madagascar of 12 October 1926 mixed metropolitan tax politics with colonial administration and communications. Its leading item reported that Edmond Boyer, deputy for Maine-et-Loire, had tabled a bill to make foreign tourists in France pay a daily levy equivalent to the French income tax, sorted into three classes at 15, 25 and 50 gold francs a day, and the paper backed the scheme as fair. A news item reported that M. Dumas, head of the mines service, had been named to run Public Works and was already in Malagasy waters aboard the Dumbéa, recalling that he had signed the tender specifications for the Southern railway. A short piece mocked a Channel swimmer, and a third item attacked the makeshift wireless station at Djibouti, run by one NCO and a handful of Somalis, which was supposed to relay the Alarobia station's transmissions to France.
Translation
The Tax Position of Foreigners in France
La Tribune, appearing Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday
The Tax Position of Foreigners in France
Deputy Edmond Boyer, who earned credit for exhuming from the administrative files the plan for a monopoly of colonial concessions drawn up by M. Letorev, has just earned further credit by finding a legal and proper way to make foreigners staying in France share in the national burdens. And since this honourable parliamentarian is a man of decision, he has put this means into a bill that the Chamber will have to examine.
Under the agreements France has signed with a large number of States, the nationals of those States staying in France must not be taxed more heavily than our own nationals. That much is clear, although we were quite wrong — just ask M. Mussolini — to tie our hands in this way. But by unassailable logic, these same foreigners ought to be taxed as heavily as we ourselves are, here at home. Now, what happens with the schedular and general income tax that falls on the French? Foreigners staying in France are not liable to it, and that is not fair.
Here is the remedy:
"The deputy for Maine-et-Loire calculates that certain tourists coming to France, at least those whom it is proper to tax, spend on average 500 paper francs a day; that is, they live on an annual income of about 180,000 paper francs. Now, on an identical income, a Frenchman pays from 50,000 to 60,000 francs in taxes, or about 25 gold francs a day. Would it not be equitable for the foreigners in question to pay, they too, a tax corresponding to that sum?
But there are foreigners of very different class and fortune, and there are some whom the exchange rate favours and others whom it disadvantages. Since the proposed levy is the equivalent of the schedular and general tax paid by the French, M. Boyer considers it equitable to rely on outward signs to sort tourists into three categories. An official declaration made by them on arrival, and their choice of hotels, which would likewise be classed in categories, would allow their declaration to be checked.
The third class would be treated like French people with incomes of 100,000 to 150,000 francs, and would pay 15 gold francs a day in tax. The second class, comparable to French people with about 200,000 francs of income, would pay 25 gold francs a day, and the first class, comparable to French people with about 400,000 francs of income, would pay 50 gold francs a day.
Thus foreigners would pay no tax beyond what the French pay. They would simply be treated as French for the length of their stay in France and would pay, according to their condition, a tax corresponding to what they would pay for the same period of time if they were French."
A series of details on how this tax would be collected and on the penalties applicable to evaders completes this proposal, which strikes us as both equitable and interesting.
Some will say: "You are going to drive foreigners away." Not at all. First, they find in France, to li-
At Public Works
Single copy: 0.30 BUNE DE and Dependen-
At Public Works
A radio message received some time ago informed us that M. Dumas, chief engineer second class, director of the mines service, had been called to take charge of the Public Works service. A few days after this first radio message arrived, it became known that Mme and M. Dumas had embarked on the Dumbéa, in Malagasy waters since 5 October.
The delay in naming the holder of the Public Works post left the appointment of M. Dumas uncertain in the eyes of some — the same M. Dumas who, as principal engineer first class, signed in Paris the specifications drawn up for the tender for the works on the Southern railway. For others,
At Djibouti
…35. She has beaten the last record, held by an Italian. Well, so much the better. But why the devil insist on crossing the Channel by getting wet, when it is so easy to take an aeroplane or simply a boat? What is the point of it? Today everyone knows that it is on land that one must know how to swim. Only fools still get into the water.
At Djibouti
Wireless
In connection with wireless, there was talk of the Djibouti station, which might be used to relay transmissions from our Alarobia station to France. We could therefore suppose that the organisation of that station had been done and completed, and that it could be placed on the same footing as the Tananarive one — even though the latter does not now have (we do not think this can be disputed) the power it ought to have, without being equal to that of the Bordeaux station, which it is far from reaching.
With us, three times out of four, things are done by halves — or by three-quarters, if you prefer: if it is not to save on every candle-end, it is often to please a few who have a great many things to find places for.
In truth, from information that reached us by the last mail, it appears that the Djibouti wireless station is installed in a makeshift fashion. As for the staff, it consists of a non-commissioned officer, whose devotion is exemplary, who, assisted by half a dozen Somalis, keeps this station running — a station which, so it is said, seems to us to occupy only a tiny place in the concerns of those whom the question ought to interest. We
Context
The Southern railway whose tender Dumas signed
The paper identified the new Public Works director, M. Dumas, as the engineer who signed in Paris the tender specifications for the 'chemin de fer du Sud'. That line is almost certainly the Fianarantsoa–Côte Est railway, Madagascar's Southern Network, which the French built between 1926 and 1936 as a 163-kilometre metre-gauge line linking the highland town of Fianarantsoa with the port of Manakara. Construction relied on SMOTIG, the colony's forced-labour programme, and on rails and ties taken from Germany as First World War reparations. The line was built in isolation from the northern network around Tananarive, which had been essentially completed by 1923. In October 1926, then, the colony was just starting a major new public-works project, and the article's attention to who would head Public Works, and to Dumas's earlier signature on the railway contract, reads against that background.
Tananarive's wireless in 1926 and the later Radio-Tananarive
The article complained that the Tananarive station lacked the power it ought to have and fell far short of Bordeaux, and blamed penny-pinching and patronage for half-finished work. Regular public broadcasting from the capital came only several years later: Radio-Tananarive first went on the air, cautiously, on 29 April 1931, from a transmitter the PTT had built during 1930, and at that time it could be picked up only within about 5 km of the radio house at Antaninarenina. Money remained the sore point. Soon after the launch, a local observer wrote that the one dark spot in this somewhat improvised organisation was the lack of money and the complete absence of a regular budget. The 1926 grievance about economising on every candle-end thus anticipates a funding problem that still dogged colonial radio in Madagascar five years later.
What Boyer's figures imply about paper and gold francs
The scheme the paper endorsed was built on its own arithmetic. A tourist spending 500 paper francs a day was treated as living on about 180,000 paper francs a year, roughly 500 multiplied by 365. A Frenchman on that income was said to pay 50,000 to 60,000 francs in tax, which the article equated with about 25 gold francs a day. Dividing 50,000 to 60,000 by 365 gives about 137 to 164 francs a day, so the article's figures implicitly treat one gold franc as worth roughly five and a half to six and a half paper francs. The article itself conceded that the exchange rate favoured some visitors and penalised others. Fixing the levy in gold francs kept the daily burden stable however far the paper franc fell. The jab at international agreements, the reference to Mussolini and the verdict that the plan was equitable are the newspaper's own positions, not findings about the bill's reception.
Original
La situation fiscale des étrangers en France
La Tribune paraissant Mardi - Jeudi - Samedi La situation fiscale des étrangers en France M. le député Edmond Boyer, qui a eu le mérite d'exhumer des cartons administratifs le projet de monopole des concessions coloniales établi par M. Letorev, vient d'avoir celui de trouver le moyen, légal et régulier, de faire participer aux charges nationales les étrangers qui séjournent en France. Et comme cet honorable parlementaire est un homme de décision, il a inséré ce moyen dans une proposition que la Chambre va avoir à examiner. Aux termes des accords signés par la France avec un grand nombre d'États, les ressortissants de ces Etats séjournant en France ne doivent pas être frappés plus que nos nationaux. Voilà qui est clair quoique nous ayons eu bien tort - demandez plutôt à M. Mussolini - de nous lier ainsi les mains. Mais par une logique indiscutable, ces mêmes étrangers doivent être taxés aussi lourdement que nous le sommes nous-mêmes, chez nous. Or, que se passe-t-il pour l'impôt cédulaire et global sur le revenu qui frappe les Français? Les étrangers qui séjournent en France n'y sont pas assujettis et ce n'est pas juste. Voici le remède: «Le député de Maine et Loire calcule que certains touristes venant en France, ceux du moins qu'il convient de frapper, dépensent en moyenne 500 francs-papier par jour, c'est-à-dire qu'ils vivent sur un revenu annuel de 180. 000 francs-papier environ. Or, avec un revenu identique, un Français paie de 50. 000 à 60. 000 francs d'impôts, soit environ 25 francs-or par jour. Ne serait-il pas équitable que les étrangers susvisés payassent, eux aussi, un impôt correspondant à cette somme? Mais il y a des étrangers de classe et de fortune fort différentes, et il y en a que le change favorise et d'autres qu'il défavorise. L'imposition préconisée étant l'équivalent de l'impôt cédulaire et global payé par les Français, M. Boyer trouve équitable de se baser sur les signes extérieurs pour classer en trois catégories les touristes. Une déclaration officielle faite par eux à leur arrivée et le choix de leurs hôtels, classés également en catégories, permettraient la vérification de leur déclaration. La troisième classe serait assimilée aux Français ayant de 100 à 150. 000 francs de revenu, et elle paierait 15 francs-or d'impôts par jour. La deuxième classe, assimilable aux Français ayant environ 200. 000 francs de revenu, paierait 25 francs-or par jour et la première classe, assimilable aux Français ayant environ 400. 000 francs de revenu, paierait 50 francs-or par jour. Ainsi les étrangers ne paieraient aucune taxe de plus que les Français. Ils seraient simplement assimilés durant leur séjour en France aux Français et paieraient, suivant leur condition, un impôt correspondant à celui qu'ils paieraient pour la même période de temps s'ils étaient Français. Une série de précisions sur le mode de perception de cet impôt et sur les sanctions applicables aux fraudeurs complète cette proposition qui nous parait à la fois équitable et intéressante. D'aucuns vont dire: «Vous allez faire fuir les étrangers». Que non pas. D'abord, ils trouvent, en France, à vi -
Aux Travaux Publics
Numéro: 0. 30 BUNE DE et Dépenda Aux Travaux Publics Un radio, il y a quelque temps déjà, nous faisait connaître que M. Dumas, ingénieur en chef de 2me classe, directeur du service des mines, était appelé à prendre la direction du service des Travaux Publics. Quelques jours après la réception de ce premier radio, on apprenait que Mme et M. Dumas étaient embarqués sur le Dumbéa, depuis le 5 Octobre dans les eaux malgaches. Le retard apporté dans la désignation du titulaire du service des Travaux Publics laissait incertaine, pour quelquesuns, la nomination de M. Dumas, qui signa à Paris, comme ingénieur principal de première classe, le cahier des charges dressé pour l'adjudication des travaux du chemin de fer du Sud. Pour d'autres,
A Djibouti
35. Elle a battu le dernier record détenu par un Italien. Allons, tant mieux. Mais, diable, pourquoi s'acharner à vouloir traverser la Manche en se mouillant, alors qu'il est si facile de prendre un avion ou tout simplement un bateau? A quoi cela rime-t-il? Aujourd'hui, tout le monde sait que c'est sur terre qu'il faut savoir nager. Il n'y a plus que les sots qui se mettent à l'eau. A Djibouti T. S. F. A propos de la T. S. F., il fut question du poste de Djibouti, susceptible d'être utilisé pour transiter les émissions de notre poste d'Alarobia sur France. Nous pouvions donc penser que l'organisation de ce poste était faite, accomplie et qu'il pouvait être placé sur le même pied que celui de Tananarive, encore que celui-ci n'ait pas, nous ne pensons pas que cela puisse être discuté, maintenant, la puissance qu'il devrait avoir, sans être égale à celle du poste de Bordeaux qu'elle est loin d'atteindre. Chez nous, les trois quarts du temps, on fait les choses à moitié, ou aux trois quarts, si vous voulez: si ce n'est par économies de toutes chandelles, c'est souvent pour faire plaisir à quelquesuns ayant beaucoup de choses à caser. A la vérité de renseignements qui qui nous sont parvenus au dernier courrier, il résulte que le poste de T. S. F. de Djibouti est installé d'une façon quelconque. Quant au personnel, il se compose d'un sous-officier, dont le dévouement est exemplaire, qui, assisté d'une demi douzaine de somalis, assure le fonctionnement de ce poste qui nous parait, dit-on, n'entrer que pour une part infinie dans les préoccupations de ceux que la question devrait intéresser. Nous