The Auckland Star : WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, MAY 4. 1923 THE GERMAN OFFER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 105, 4 May 1923, Page 4

The Auckland Star : WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 4. 1923 THE GERMAN OFFER.

For the cause that lacks assistanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Tiip French Government lias immediitely rejected the German offer <>l •settlement, and the Froncli l'rcss had lone the same in advance, or while only in unofficial version was available. What s now offered, £ I JiO" ,(100,000, i* fery uuich less than what KVanun )xpeots, mid even wliat Mr. Bonar Law unsuccessfully ]>roposod in I'nris in January lust. Germany then contemplated making an offer, on certain conditions, similar to the out; now put forward. The ISritish Government cousidored that £2,500,000,000 "mipht lie found to lie within Germany's power to pay subject to a moratorium" (note tliu word "might"), but France rejected this proposal, and on Germany's default the Ruhr invasion followed, Germany now offers a thousand millions less than the British suggestion, also with a moratorium, so it is not surprising that France should reject the offer. The Germans are hopeless diplomatists, and they seem, quite characteristically, to have weakened any chance the Note, may have had of being seriously considered, by their threat ot" continued resistance if the Ruhr is not evacuated. It, may also be noted that even London opinion, which is prepared to accept a much lower sum thun is France, thinks the offer too small. The "Daily Chronicle" combines denunciation of the French reception of the offer with this very expression of opinion. What will come of the offer, and arc the prospects of peace any brighter 1 han they were'; It is very hard to say. but perhaps it may be said that the offer ia at least an attempt to break down a situation that is crippling Germany and endangering the peace of Europe. Nor is it eagy to believe that under tin; circumstances the German oiler i.i insincere. It must be to the interests of the Gorman <;.>%■ eminent, to pud tho occupation of tin , Ruhr as soon as possible. Yet there is still a. huge gulf to bridge. The Paris "Journal" declares that "France and Belgium require but one tiling from Germany, that is. acceptance of the debt payments fixed in May, 1021." That means that France and lielgium require the payment of £0,01)0,000,000. It is important to note that Mr. Bonar Law admitted, in the House of Commons recently, that the French proposed to stay in the Ruhr until Germany had paid this amount, which the "Manchester Guardian" remarked was "only a roundabout way of saying 'for ever." 1 Few people with any claim to express an opinion on.the point believe that Germany can pay anything like that sum. Mr. itonar Law, -with the advice of some of the ablest financiers in the world behind him, thought in January that Germany might manage less than hall of it. As we remarked the. other day, the main difficulty of gauging the prospects of a settlement lies in the impossibility of knowing what is really in the mind of the French Government. If the Ruhr move was dictated soiely by a desire to get reparations, it will ho easier to make a settlement than if the Government has in its mind the permanent control of the Ruhr mineral wealth, and the obtaining of military security by occupation. If France means to stay in the Ruhr her Allies, particularly Britain, will have to take action, and it is worthy of note that the German offer is not addressed to France alone The reparations clauses in the Treaty wore clumsily drawn, hut the framers did not contemplate separate action b\ one Power. The British Government has resisted all efforts to push it. intc intervention, but this attitude of dis approving neutrality cannot be main tamed for ever. Looking to the broadei requirements of European peace an< progress, and her own interests. Britair will be forced to take a hand if the present situation is continued in definitely. America may also liavt

something to say about French poliev; if thog American Government, disapproves it can always put on v little pressure by asking Fran-.-e to discharge her debt. Let us hope, however, that the French rejection of llic Herman .offer is not the end of thi< now chapter, but that the negotiations so begun will continue.

WEATHER AND REPUTATION. Discussing the drought in Australia a few weeks ago, we drew attention to the kindlier climatic conditions of .New Zealand. Now comes an incident to underline the difference. At a place called Thargomindah in South-YVestcrn Queensland (the name sounds rather too good to he true) little children born since ]!)!!) were startled by their iirst sight of rain. Such an incident is not new. We remember a traveller describing just such a scene a few years ago; he had actually seen, in this part of the interior of Australia, children some years old terrified on seeing rain. Australians must be tempted to try to keep this sort of thing out of the Press, for think of the kind of advertisement it is for .istralia. Probably this will gu all u\ur the world, that there are children four years old in Australia who have never seen rain, and the story will be embroidered as it goes along until perhaps it takes the form that no Australian child knows what rain is like and that when they travel :md sep it they become terror-stricken. From this it will be deduced that Australia is another Arabia. Countries and places run this risk of getting bad reputation* We could not help thinking when the la<t Vancouver steamer passed through here in rain and storm Hint through tourists by her would get a very unfortunate impression of Auckland. Yon can imagine a man sitting in the smok-ing-room of an English club and touching mi his experiences. •'Auckland? Have I been there? My dear fellow. 11l never forgot it. We ran into the dickens of a storm approaching it, and it poured all the time we were there. A wet and dismal hole of a place, believe mc." In vuin miglit anotner ''Last, loneliest, loveliest" to him. We' kuow :•. man who has been to Nelson only once, and it rained the whole of the one day lie spent there. Fortunately, being a fair-minded person, he is prepared tn believe that Nelson deserves its reputation as one of the sunniest, if not the sunniest, spots in New Zealand. Diinedin, according to the "Otago Daily ! Times," has hud freakish luck in this I respect. "It may bo remembered that in the early part of the year IKflO, when the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was in progress in Uunedin, two special shipping excursions were arranged, one from Melbourne, the other from Sydney. While the Victorian visitors were'with us the rain fell in torrents almost every day, and for years afterwards—so the legend runs—the topic of Dunedin weather could not be mentioned in Melbourne without proI yoking nn outburst of unseemly objurgai t ion. The travellers from NVw South Wales had a directly opposite experience. During their stay t liv weather was as delightful as only Dunedin weather, at its best, can be, and (again the legend!) there are elderly folk in J Sydney who rave about it to this day." The, moral is to travel with an open J mind, remembering that climate, no more than man himself, deserves to be judged by its worst manifestations.