Bonhomme Tourenq

The Chamber was not in session last week, but French Deputies meeting on the boulevards over long amber goblets of Pernod asked each other who was ce petit bonhomme Tourenq who was raising such a riot in the Ministry of Finance. Dust from the Oustric scandal (TIME, Dec. 29, 1930) was still in the air. What, if anything, did small Tourenq know?

Sad-eyed Jean Tourenq has been an employe of the Treasury for 28 of his 46 years. During the War he served in the trenches and won two citations for gallantry in action. He also won a new assertiveness. Out of the trenches, Jean Tourenq was made a tax collector, 12th class. He had political ambitions. Taxgatherer Jean Tourenq advertised himself as "The Taxpayer's Friend," and every taxpayer who called with a list of complaints found Jean Tourenq eager to join a duet on the evils of the Government.

This increased his prestige in the neighborhood but did him no good with the Ministry of Finance. Jean Tourenq was moved from one arrondissement to an other, demoted from the 12th to the 13th grade in the department.

Recently Tourenq, the Taxpayer's Friend, wrote to the head of his department and announced that he wished to be arrested for embezzlement. His books were $200,000 short. The money was concealed in a safe place but Jean Tourenq would never tell where it was until he had been able to "show up the Treasury" at his trial.

What did Jean Tourenq know? Dozens of French politicians worried about the little tax collector last week. Had he really uncovered a new scandal, or was this a clever scheme to bluff the Government out of $200,000? Important men visited him in his cell last week, pleaded with him to give up the money or tell what he knew. Jean Tourenq hugged his knees and repeated his demand for a public trial.

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