BRITAIN MUST PAY AND FORGET.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3140, 23 October 1922, Page 7

BRITAIN MUST PAY AND FORGET.

(By Sir Plnip Gibbs.) A very 'great American in London, one of the most important men in the world to-day, startled me last week by making the following remark with absolute sincerity and gravity: "The only country in Europe which is getting bettor is Russia. Others arc getting worse." These words took my breath away for a moment, because this man has intimate knowledge not only of the economic facts of Europe, but also of the secret forces of international poliIs there any truth or absolute truth in what he says'? If so, Europe must bo in a bad way, indeed, for improvement in Russia is just the difference between hunger and starvation or hn"■ering misery and sudden death. 01 course, lie did not mean that other European countries are in the same state of poverty as Russia. What lie meant was that whereas Russia IS ]USt showing signs of renewed vitality, nownvcr low her vital spark, some approach to sanity after the wild madness of revolution, other nations, like France. Germany, Austria, Italy and England, arc showing signs not of regeneration but of further decay. I am bound to say I entirely agree with him. It is becoming clear to manv minds in Great Britain and elsewhere that nothing can save tUirepe from verv grave catastrophe, including widespread revolution and new w;irs during the next ten or fifteen years, except a complete change of international relationship based not on acts of the old statesmen now m power, but upon t'„e uprising and spiritual regeneration. Whether that is going to happen or not is still uncertain. There : ,re no immediate signs of it. • But it it does not happen (.rate soon there is „ () i„g to be a European upheaval which will shake the world to its foundations. The centra! fact in this alarming st-ite of affairs in the economic collapse .of Germany. If those 60,000,000 highly organised, industrious, virile people find themselves unable to maintain national life in an orderly way Idealise of the downfall of credit and soaring prices the ffect of their desperate, violent reaction will shake the verv pillars of European civilisation. That is oniv one aspect of the dangers now threatening us all. Owing to the inability of European statesmen to sink all national differences m a common eifort to rise above the slough of despond in which Europe sank alter the war. the financial conditions of every country, including Great Britain are steadilv growing worse. Capital is crippled in its enterprise, national revenues are eaten up by national debt and trade between one country and another is made difficult and dangerous owing to the unstable state of exchanges. There is actually dry rot in the human energy ot Europe and civilisation as shown by the figures of unemployment in England, disastrous because it is a waste of hvm<' material which could he converted into the fruits of toil. Suspicion, anger and ill temper arc aroused between onenation and another, eaeli of whom accuses the other with being the chief cause of iis burdens, fanning up smoldering fires which one day may leap into flame.

"Wo do not want any more war, said a German the other day, then added, "except one." There is no need to mention the nation which was to be the exception to that pacifist, philosophy. France does not want any more war, being convinced of its irrevocable costs. But she is not going to take chances. She is fully aware o! that German exception. So she is training black legions in North Africa, maintaining a great military machine, building strong fleets of submarines 1 , crowding the sky with airplanes. England, very close to the coast of ['"ranee, is not absolutely certain of French friendship forever and ever, in spite of common sacrifices; she is nervous of those submarines and aeroplanes and the British Government unwillingly and under immense pressure of public uneasiness, promised to increase her air fleet to 000 planes against the French 2000. Of course, we cannot afford it. Franco can afford it still less, because of her enormous debt to England and the German failure to pay. What sense is there in all this? What security for peace? What chance for recuperation from wars and ruin? Yet without some miraculous change in human failure and international policy it is inevitable.

Balfour's famous note throw a fierce white Light on the vicious circle in which Europe is coiled in those strangling coils of international debt. A-ftei al! the violence, comment and argument which it has engendered what is to emerge is a plain, inescapable fact. it is this: Britain will pay the United States £900.000,000, whatever the. burden may mean to her people, hut she cannot let Franco off some proportion at least of that enormous sum of 0,000.000,000 owed Great Britain, of which Prance owes £584,000,000. So to pay England. Prance must squeeze Germany by thumbscrew and rack, knowing all tbe time it will only produce an insignificant share in Germany's real indebtedness. So the process of Europe's decay must go on to exasperation and lead to desperation.

in conversation between Poincare and Lloyd George they endeavored to find a. way out of this tangle. There is no way out except a complete wash out of inter-Allied debts, including those of the United States, which will not be washed out unless Great Britain were to forgive all debtors ami pay all debts. That, in my opinion, i« utterly unfair, but also one heroic remedy which can save us all. For the sake of Europe the British people might be induced to suffer greater burdens, even at the risk of sinking under the weight of them. ! believe there is a majority in Great Britain who would take that risk for the possible chance of securing world peace recovery. 1 am inclined, to believe we .shall do so ultimately, whatever temporary arrangement may be patched up between Poincare and Lloyd Geoi'ge with their halfhearted compromise on each side. Hut whether we lake the full risk of the burden of Europen or only part of it, as now. it would he well for thy world to know that already the Hritish peoplo are more heavily handicaped than any other people. Leaving on one side the American debt, we an; taxed up to the eyebrows. I'Vir income tax we pay seven pounds ion shillings a head, as against the French one pound a head, and for indirect taxation, three pounds leu a head against the French one pound a head. in order to pay Co0,0()0,000 yearlx as interest no the American loan we shall have io scrape no another shilling on our income tax. What will thai mean io (he British people? Undoubtedly further restriction of business onterprifo. more unomploymenl dwindling energy in factories and workshops and tii! greater difficulty fo raise national revenue. The United Slates will get a lot of money and they will lose a lot of trade. The Western farmer will set- his surnlus products dotting on the ground heeau-e Europe cannot buy . The Eastern manufactured will have his warehouses chocked with surplus stocks for

which no European money will lie forthcoming. Industrial Europe will gradually decay, the only people with a sense of security will be those who work the land and raise sufficient for themselves with a margin to spare tor their urban neighbors engaged in sweated labor. And those sweated' masses on wages dropping behind food prices will not be patient and long-suf-fering forever. They will be sullen and enraged. They will certainly make trouble. They will ultimately, beyond l any doubt at all, in this generation or tin- next, repudiate all those debts which were the heritage of the war, either by refusal to pay or by revolutions and disorders, in which there will bo no possibility of paying. That is going to happen whatever statesmen do or fail to do. however far Poincare meets Lloyd George or Lloyd George meets Poincare. There is only one country which can avert the full' measure of' that European default and tragedy, that is England. The United States might have done so, but she doesn't care to do so. does not think it fair she should lie asked to do so. So it is England upon which the responsibility devolves. And in my humble opinion, based on a knowledge of English history and the character of our people, 1 believe we shall shoulder the burden bravely, accept our growing poverty with patience, turn a blind eye to the debts of France, we have to mend our boots and sell our war medals. That will help rCuropo from sinking, but it won't prevent widespread poverty or quicken the revival el' world trade. Nor will secure peace unless in return for England's financial sacrifice Rranee economises on submarines, airplaues and black legions, and Germany makes no exception, not even one. to a new philosophy of peace.