Germany's Indermnity.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16470, 13 March 1919, Page 6

Germany's Indermnity.

It is possible that there may be some disappointment over the changing public opinion nt Home, referred to in one of yesterday's cable messages, as to the extent of the claims that should be pressed against Germany. But it is not surprising that- on a fuller consideration of the question there should bo somo abatement of the demand, made very widely in Britain during the election campaign, that Germany should be made to pay, not merely for the damage she had done in the invaded territories, but also the cosi of the military and naval operations which she had forced the Allies to undertake. In strict justice they were [entitled to make that claim. As Mr Lloyd George said in a pre-election speech at Newcastle: "In every Court "of Justice throughout the world it Is "an axiom that if the claimant fails "to establish the justice of his case "he has to bear the cost of the liti- " gation, and what is true between individual litigants is equally true be- " tweeu nations. When Gerrrlany defeated France she iflade France pay, "and that is the principle we should " proceed upon—that Geimapy must ] "pay the costs of the war up to the " limits of her capacity." Those qualifying words, "up to the limits of her "•capacity," mark the difference between the Prime Minister's view of the matter and the widespread feeling that Germapy must pay for everything that could be charged in the account to be presented to her. Mr Lloyd George I recognised, as many others have done, that nothing would be gained but a great deal might be lost, by trying to squeezo out of Germany not merely penal but unwisely excessive damages. J From that attitude the heads of the Government have not wavered, for only last week Mr Bonar Law only paraphrased his leader's statement in assuring the Housp of Commons that the Government meant to get what it could towards tjie relief of the terrible burden lying upon the country.

The actual cost of the war to Great Britain, her Allies, and the United States lias been set down at between £25,000,000,000 and £30,000,000,000; exclusive of tho losses caused by devastation amounting probably to as much more. It_must be remembered that the victors are only entitled, so far as international practice has established a law, to claim for damages caused by .acts other than ordinary military and naval operations. Thus no claim could be made for the injury caused by the shelling of a town occupied by belligerent forces, but a claim would lie in respect of wanton damage, thefts of goods and of treasures of art, and all unnecessary destruction such as the cutting down of orchards and so forth. It would be quite within the Allies' power to claim for the payment of the aggregate amount of their war costs and the damage referred to. And there is no doubt that if it were judicious to do so, such payment could be enforced. Germany is even now a rich country. Her great resources are unimpaired by the war. In 1913 the value of her mineral wealth was estimated at £250,000,000,000. In the matter of food she was practically selfsupporting. The State railways produced, in the year before the war, a net profit of some £53,000,000. The State and communal forests cover some 17,000,000 acres, and there is as much more forest in private hands. Apart from her mineral resources and forests Germany's tangible wealth was estimated some years ago by the most eminent German statistical authority at £18,000,000,000. It has suffered considerable diminution since then, of ! course, for the Gorman war debt is onormous. Of Germany's capacity

ultimately to pay all that the Allies could rightly claim from her there is. therefore, no doubt. But it would be unwise for them to push their demands to the uttermost. Germany, however much we may dislike the fact, must bo allowed to live. Tho Reparation Commission are said to havo decided that she must pay by handing over her gold reserve, by making over to the Allies the debts owing to her by foreign countries, and by supplying them with coal and potash. Tho amount which is to bo demanded from her finally is perhaps not yet settled. The Commission was statod some days ago to have fixed it at £600,000,000 annually for fifty years. Then the total was put-down as £24,000,000,000, payment being extended over thirty years, and now we are told, on reliable authority that the Commission has decided that the most that Ger-

many can pay over a term of years is £8,000.000,000 —a sum just about equivalent to Great Britain's war costs. Between this amount and the earlier domands for the payment of all war costs and devastation there is a hugo difference, but the danger of pressing for more than Germany can really afford to pay is that such a course would probably drive'her into a condition of absolute and unmitigated Bolshevism, which would make her a peril to tho whole world. It will b© from no sense of tenderness towards Germany, but from motivos of pure policy, that tho Allies and America refrain from compelling her to pay to the uttermost farthing for the losso3 and misery she has brought upon the world.