INSOLVENT GERMANY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3148, 18 December 1922, Page 2

INSOLVENT GERMANY.

Dr -J. F. Elliott, who has just returned from a European tour, in ai luncheon hour lecture at the Sydney National Club, said that in his opinion Germany was now on the verge of insolvency, and was approaching a financial crisis that would affect all the European countries, as well as Australia and America.

Dr Elliott (reports the Sydney Morning Herald) said that be estimated the position in Germany from what he regarded as tho sale standpoint of the spending power of the great middle classes, which were the backbone of any country. When he visited Europe hi 1.U14 the Riviera, Switzerland, and tho fashionable resorts of Southern Enrope were crowded with travelling Germans ,who were able to spend money lavishly. In his recent tour be met scarcely a German travelling, and the big hotels built in Switzerland and other places for the accommodation of Germans were all closed down, as they had no business.

The German Government which followed the Socialist revolution, .lie continued', was a coalition that promised 1 concessions to all sections of the people, but. like most Governments, found that it could not carry out the promises. Phoperty that "was confiscated' by the Socialists was paid for in bonds bearing a nominal interest of o per cent., but that was paid in marks which had practically lost their purchasing power. This was illustrated in the case of an Australian lady who married a German-American who had drifted back to Germany. She invested l'2ooo in a house, which was confiscated under the Socialistic regime. The interest on that money, on the present value of the mark, represented Is lOd per annum. That was what was occurring all over Germany. The middle classes were walking the streets looking lor something to do. and 1 were willing to sell papers or do the most menial work, and many bad to resort to searching the garbage tins for something with which to sustain life. When the Allies insisted that the indemnity instalments should be met the German Government said that they would be [laid in gold. That gold did not come from (iennany. hut principally from the Allied countries. France thought that Germany bad hoarded gold ill< Berlin, but the factwas that the German Government turned! to the printing presses, and issued mark notes by the million. These were bought by unsuspecting persons in Kuiope. England, and America,— even in Australia-and the gold secured for these promissory notes — for that was all they wvro —was used to pay the indemnity, with the result that the value of the mark had fallen to zero, and the future, in consequence, was full of doubt and difficulty not only for Germany but for all the countries of the world which at present had stable government. Thee** German marks would. he blieved. never be redeemed, and they might be regarded as scrap naper.

The solution of the difficulty, so far as he could form an opinion on the facts, before him. and what he had' personally seen, was that America, should forgive Great Britain the war debt owed for money advanced to the Allied countries: that Britain, should in turn wipe off this debt, and that the Allies should wipe out the German indemnity on the retirement of Germany to tile other side of the Rhine, which was the natural German boundary. On that condition Germany would practically go insolvent, and be given an opportunity of starting all over again. No one who visited the battlefields and saw the ravages wrought by the "dogs of war" loosed, by Germany could ever forgive that country for all the ruin, suffering, and devastation caused, but this "wash; out," to use a vulgar expression, was necessary for the future safety not only of Europe but of civilisation.