[rocketeer]

According to an article I read France had a real mixture of voltages between the wars due mainly to regional generation. According to the article there were 110, 120, and 150 systems at the time. That could explain the need for a ballast tube in the French version of the 265 in the hopes the radio would work the same no matter which region it was used in. It's possible Philco modified the chassis specifically for export to France or the importer modified them prior to sale. Just hypothesizing.

Here is a good PDF explaining why ballast tubes were needed in the early days.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/BOO...ok-opt.pdf