CLAIMS FROM WAR

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 82, 31 December 1929, Page 9

CLAIMS FROM WAR

AMERICAN-GERMAN AGREEMENT REPARATIONS AND OTHER DEMANDS Washington, December 29. The Treasury Department announced that an agreement had been reached between the United States and Germany for the settlement of all reparations and claims arising out of the war. This will be submitted to Congress for approval. The execution of the agreement is contingent upon the coming into effect of the Young Plan, and meanwhile the United States retains all its existing rights. American reparations and claims on account of the Army of Occupation and mixed claims of American citizens total approximately 450 million dollars. AMERICA’S ALOOFNESS The “haughty attitude” of the United States has, according to the New York “Outlook,” handicapped the drafting of plans for the Bank for International Settlements. “When the World Bank wqg first proposed, in the Young Plan, the Administration declared that the Federal Reserve system would have nothing to do with it,” says the “Outlook.” "The American delegates to the conference at Baden-Baden went without official blessing. To top all, in the midst of their labours, the United States opened conversations with Germany aimed at treaty arrangements for German payments to America. . . . The Young plan intended these payments to be made through the World Bank, the institution through which Germany is to pay the claims of its other creditors. _ The Administration evidently has decided otherwise. It is explained that the Senate will be quicker to endorse a separate treaty, which alters America’s claims on Germany, than it would be to endorse the Young plan, whieh also alters them. There is point in the somewhat bewildered comment of the other Powers that if they all followed the American example the Young plan would be gravely impaired, but Washington does not seem to feel it. The fiction that the United States is unconcerned with reparations and has nothing to do with their payment is apparently to be maintained. This, despite the facts that an American headed the committee which proposed the bank, that two Americans are on the committee which has worked out its charter, and that an American may be its president. Europeans may be pardoned for concluding that the World Bank, like the World Court and the League of Nations, is simply another international agency fathered by American statesmanship and disowned by an American Government.” GERMAN DELEGATION TO HAGUE CONFERENCE Berlin, December 29. The German delegation to The Hague Conference will consist of Dr. Curtins, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Herr Moldenhaur, Finance; Herr Schmidt, Economic Affairs; Herr Wirth, Occupied Territories. The chief expert will be the banker, Herr Melchior., Surprise is expressed' at the omission of Dr. Schacht. It is stated that he was unwilling to be appointed expert, and insisted on being a full delegate or nothing. He is willing to be available, if required, during discussions relating to the Reparations Bank,