WHAT MR McKENNA THINKS GERMANY CAN PAY.

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

WHAT MR McKENNA THINKS GERMANY CAN PAY.

Germany cannot pay more than a fraction of the reparations demanded) from her, while, except for England's debt to the United States, the interAllied debts are practically uncollectable. Tide, in short, was the view put forward by Mr R. McKenna, a former British Chancellor of the Exchequer and the chairman of the London .Joint City and Midland 'Bank, in his address to the American Bankers Convention in New York. KHis main conclusions may be suni■avised as follows :

■ "Germany can only pay now by realBug whatever she may have in foreign Biances, together with such an amount ran realise by the sale of her remaining foreign securities, the total being estimated at 1,000.000,000 dollars (roughly 222 millions sterling). " This- payment is only possible if all oilier demands are postponed for a definite period (at least three years), hue; enough to ensure the stabilisation ol !io mark.

"England lias the capacity to pay to the Tniied States interest and sinking fund on her debt. "The other debtors are none of them in a. position to meet more than a small part of their external liabilities, and in the existing condition of Europe a definite postponement ol any payment by them is desirable in the interests of all the parties.

"The actual amount which the other debtors could ultimately pay should, as in the case of Germany, be ascertained by a full and frank conference between creditors and debtors." "Germany," he said, "has already handed over in money and property 2,000,000,000 dollars.' of which onl'v 375,000,000 dollars (£83,000,000) was in. cash. Yet the mark has declined to less than one-seventh of the value it had when the obligation to pay was imposed on Germany. After tins experience, it is difficult to believe that Germany has any surplus at the present time from the export of her products. "Germany can pay something," he said, "though not in the form or under the condition it is now sought to impose on her. Many Germans possess foreign assets, and it would he perfectly practicable for them to sell these assets to the German Government, who in turn could hand them over to the Reparations Commission. I believe it would be safe to put the value of these at net less than 1,000,000.000 dollars. "But before this can he done the lull of the mark must be arrested."