ON THE EVE OF LAUSANNE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 139, 14 June 1932, Page 6

ON THE EVE OF LAUSANNE.

Although the cabled reports from Paris are diplomatically vague, they are important as indicating that the efforts made to clarify the situation oh the eve of the Lausanne Conference have shown a "community of views" between Britain and France. The InterAllied debts represent one phase of the problem, but any agreement reached must finally have reference to Germany's capacity to pay reparations; and Germany has made it perfectly clear what attitude her representatives will adopt at the Conference. "No more tribute" is stated to be the slogan of all the German political parties, and any Government pledging itself to further payments will be courting disaster. The German problem, which is largely responsible for the growing financial paralysis of the world, will have to be squarely faced at Lausanne. The reparation debt is in excess of the foreign debt of Britain and France together. The amount standing against 1 Germany's account is over £.1,700,000,000, and she has paid, since the Treaty of Versailles, an amount which, according to the French estimate, exceeds £900,000,000. This estimate has been strongly challenged in Germany as representing in reality not even a third of the actual values withdrawn from Germany. The demands of the Allies are regarded by the United States as excessive, and they must be moderated if America is to be brought to consider cancellation.