The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1926 SOMETHING FROM GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1926, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1926 SOMETHING FROM GERMANY.

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

According to the Berlin correspondent of the '"Times, -, the new German Government intends to make a bid for popularity by protesting strongly against the continued enforcement of the Dawes Plan. The newspaper which is generally | supposed to express the sentiments of > the German Minister of Foreign Affairs has declared mat trie terms vi • payment imposed by the Dawes Plan I cannot possibly he fulfilled without plunging Germany into the lowest depths of economic and social misery; and it therefore calls upon all parties in the i republic to unite in the demand for a | conference, to be convened by the Powers for the express purpose of modi- : fying these intolerable conditions. Of, course all this would necessarily involve j a fundamental alteration of the pea^e, terms, and this is apparently the object ! that Herr Stresemann and his friends • have in view. For they insist that a J fresh investigation must he undertaken' in regard to (iermany's paying capacity, and they indicate cleariy enough that | such an inquiry would not be acceptable ! to them unless it resulted in sonic modification of the terms accepted "under j pressure of necessity" at Versailles. I Presumably it would be too much to i ; expect that the (Jermans, in view of all the circumstances, would form a fair I and impartial estimate of the Dawes! i *■ i ■ Plan and the effects TTiat it has pro- '■ dueed. But fortunately we are not i . compelled to base onr opinions on this j i question solely upon the evidence that ' 1 Herr Streseniann's organ supplies. A i j few weeks ago tho Agent -General for I Reparations made his formal report on ' ■ I the first year's working of the Dawes | scheme; and -what Mr. Pmker Gilbert. I has to say on the subject is well worthy jof careful consideration. Within the I twelve months ihat have elapsed (since ; the Dawes Plan was nut into operation,' its two principal objects have l*?en attained. Primarily the Dawes Commission endeavoured to devise a scheme ! which would make it possible for Or-1 many to pay reparations on a certain I I definite scale, without reducing herself j to ruin, while at the same time restoring I her internal trade and finance to some- i thing like a normal condition. Now Mr.! Gilbert has told the Reparations ComI mission that these purposes have been i successfully achieved. "The (lerinan I P.ud<rct has been balanced with a c< 11- ---' siderable margin of success and stahiiiiv. , the German euirency lias been full ' ! maintained." Tn other words, a= a re-J i suit of the application of 1 lie Dawes i Plan, Germany has been rescued from the. sloTigh of insolvency in which she '■ j was struggling, and by it the conditions- • jon which sound finance depends. \vhi*:|ii>rl '' in her internal or external relations, have j been firmly and permanently established. Remembering the chaotic condition to which German finance was reduced by war-inflation and the subsequent doliheratc depreciation of the mark, wp •■:i!il ; only marvel at the success accomplished by the Reparations Commission in so | short a time. But as ;i matter of f.vt 'this indicates only one lihase of Mie j ■benefits secured by the application of i jthis ingenious system. The Budget for J the year ending March ."1 closed with a I J surplus of over £44.000,000. a n<l thoj 1 revenue receipts from the sources con-j 'trolled by the Commission on account of, i reparations were about £-2f1.000.0<i0 in j j excess of the estimate-*. The first annual j payment of Lift.ooo.ooo to the reparations fund was easily met: for only oneI fifth had to be raised from Germany's ' resources, while four-fifths were supplied j from the loan raised for Germany on I I Allied credit in accordance with I'm ■ | Dawes Plan. But allowing for all this, j I; Mr. Parker Gilbert maintains that <k>r- ; many has every -prospect of meeting j these charges—which after 102S-0 rise ■ ( to a minimum of £lCs.o«)o.frof) a year j • 'without seriously embarrassing her: public finances or interfering with tlio ' ; growth of her industries and her trade. i All this is very encouraging: and the !i facts we have cited supply a useful anfij dote to the partisan outcries of the .German official Press, which resents the success of the Dawes Plan because it ! i has enabled the Allies to exact from the j Germans some portion of the penalties so justly imposed upon them. i