GERMANY'S BELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 276, 21 November 1928, Page 7

GERMANY'S BELL.

PAYING FOR WAR.

Reparations Must Not Exceed Capacity To Pay.

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 0 a.m.) LONDON, November 20. The Berlin correspondent of the "Morning Post" comments on the statement made in the Reichstag by the Foreign Minister, Herr Stresemann, that the final reparation settlement must be one not exceeding Germany's capacity to pay from her resources, and not endangering the standard of living of her people.

Discussing the factors which the experts must consider, he says Germany has been able to increase her Budget expenditure very substantially in 1028. The industrial production in 1928 was roughly 25 per centum above the average for 1924 to 1926. The standard of living and the wages of skilled and unskilled workers, and the savings banks deposits had risen materially. On the other side of the picture, Germany's net borrowings from abroad from January 1, 1925, to Hay 31, 1928, amounted to £242,500,000, almost exactly equivalent to the amount paid out in the reparation annuities. It will be asked to what extent Germany is dependent on foreign capital in the future and to what extent foreign investors are prepared to maintain the supply. The last four years have been years of artificially stimulated reconstruction, following ten years of stagnation. Is it humanly possible to determine upon brief experience what Germany will be able to bear twenty years hence? NATIONALIST MOTION. DEFEATED IN REICHSTAG. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Received 12 noon.) BERLIN, November 20. The Reichstag, by 219 to 98 votes, rejected the Nationalist motion demanding a reduction of the reparation payments by £50,000 annually and the devotion of the money to agricultural relief. The motion is regarded as tantamount to a no-confidence in Dr. Stresemann.