Shrewd

Indignation boiled in every line of a public statement issued by the State Manufactory of Sevres, renowned porcelain.

The citizens of France were reminded that the State presents a superb set of Sevres china to every foreign Legation and Embassy in Paris. Furthermore, when a piece from one of these "diplomatic sets" breaks, the fragments are exchangeable without charge for a new and costly Sevres platter, plate, vase.

With righteous indignation the State Sevres Bureau informed the citizens that for some years past shrewd diplomats have been working a "double exchange" and swindling the state out of thousands of francs worth of Sevres.

The shrewd gentry, or more often their wives, deliberately permit a Sevres vase to be broken, send half the fragments to the factory, get a whole new vase in exchange, send the other half of the fragments a little later, get another whole new vase. . . .

The expose of last week (no names mentioned) is expected to convince diplomatic racketeers that hereafter they must send back all pieces at once.

In justice to some of the poorer diplomats in Paris, the State Sevres Bureau indicated that they have "double exchanged" principally when driven to do so by the necessity of giving a sumptuous and costly wedding (or other) present.