GERMANY SHAMS POOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 219, 13 September 1923, Page 7

GERMANY SHAMS POOR.

FRANCE IN THE RUHRAND WHY SHE STAYS THERE. ELOQUENT FIGURES. A most telling exposition of the justness of the claims of France and her reasons for remaining in the Ruhr until 'Germany comes to her senses was made jin the Town Hall last night by Sir J. G. Ward, at the. meeting in favour of the League of Nations. Sir .loseph thinks France is right, and has been right all I along, in her attitude to Germany, and Jhe showed why. He quoted figures pre- | pared not more than six months ago, the gold mark being used, so that the comparison would be the same for each I I country, showing the wealth and indebtedness of Great Britain, France, and Germany, before and after the war. There was no doubt, said Sir Joseph, that the failure to settle this matter of reparations and indemnities was going to be a very serious thing for the British Empire. The figures he would give would show why France was in the I Ruhr. Before the war the national wealth of Great Britain was 725 millions of gold marks, of France 232 millions, and of Germany .'(.'to millions. The • total amount of the debts of the three countries before the war was: Great Britain 13 thousand millions. France 2(i thousand I millions, and Germany 20 thousand millions. The present debts of Ureat Britain were 135 thousand millions, of France 112 thousand millions, and of Germany 1200 millions, the lastnamed not including reparations or indemnities. The present debt charge of Great Britain was 7 thousand millions of gold marks, of France r> thousand millions, and of Germany only 72 millions. Those figures showed what France was sutlering from. The debt charge per head of the population was 172 gold marks in Great Britain, 122 in France, and in Germany it was only one gold mark per head. Every French man and woman knew what the comparison was, and every French man and woman knew that in IS7O, during the l'Vaneo-Prussian war, Bismark's message to the Germans in France was: -Leave them only their tears."' Town after town in France had been devastated by the late war, and it would make anyone bitter and hostile to know that what Germany was now offering was not a tithe of what she should pay, and it encouraged the belief that Germany did not want to make just amends for the great amount of wrong she had caused. (Applause.)