MAKE GERMANY PAY!

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 78, 28 September 1918, Page 11

MAKE GERMANY PAY!

AN EMPTY TREASURY, BUT COLOSSAL WEALTH

THREE COGENT REASONS.

Why should (.we ask no indemnity from Germany when the hour of Allied victory strikes? The canting cry of "No annexations, no-.indemnites" has no national warrant. It is" not business—the business that says he who loses must pay the piper (writes "Economist" in London Sunday Chronicle).

Mr. John Hodge, M.P., recently asked in a tone of surprise, "Why no indemity?" Thousands more—workers, traders, merchants, and manufacturers—will want to know why, if the hour of victory comes, we should not follow tbe precedent meted out by Germany to France in 1871.

Lord Emmott, in. a striking, speech in the House of Lords recently, showed that Germany's finances are in a very bad way indeed. No Customs revenue is being raised because of our blockade. As to excise, nothing is going into the Kaiser's Treasury, or practically nothing, because the people have precious little brandy, malt, and sugar to consume. Under those two headings Germany is running nearly -£70,000,000 short each year of war, and really, all round, fully three times ■ that. Germany has- been persuading her people that her victory is certain, and indemnities from the Allies will cover her gigantic gamble. The Imperial Government's debt on 31st March next will amount to over £8,000,000,000. A balance on a German Budget without "indemnities" will never be heard of again .in the Fatherlandj talk as the German Professors may. Germany's war chest is emptying, if it is not already empty. , £170,000,000,000 IN COAL. Then how are we going to obtain an indemnity? How can we make Germany pay ? ■ _ • • I A writer of distinction^ in Kelly's Monthly Trade Review, points the way. Germany to-day possesses the greatest mineral -resources in Europe, -especially in coal, iron, und potash. ' The great dominating factor in.industry, transport, and commerce—which is coal, the generator of power—in hers almost in profusion as compared with other nations. According to statistics put before the International Geological Congress in the year before the war, she has half the coal of Europe, three times as much as Great Britain, and twenty-four times as much as France. Putting her natural stock of coal at 8s a ton at the pit mouth, there is a capital' sum of £170,000,000.000. At tho more reasonable price of 12s a ton it would be £255,000,000,000. Can Germany, in the light of such incontrovertible figures of natural wealth, be excused payment for her enormities? Up to date the lesser sum would pay England's war debt more than 20 times over. Nor can the argument be »tdvanced that Germany's coal is "poor stuff." It is largely bituminous, and is rich in byproductb, such as oil, gas, ammonia, tar, and dyes. ■

Secondly, as to her iron ore. In a report to the International Geographical Congress in 1910 it was conservatively estimated that Germany possessed' 4000 million tons actually in sight and very considerable reserves, which, capitalised, is a certain 1000 millions sterling, plus an enormous sum which cannot accurately be estimated on: reserves'not in sight.

"■Again, Germany has a world monopoly of potash salts—soluble potash being one of,the most valuable and".most necessary, fertilisers known for. grain, roots, tobacco,. potatoes, and fruits. To potash and by-products of phosphoric iron ore Germany's great agricultural prosperity and the gigantic annual increase in her corps over the last two decades are largely due. It is used also. in leading industries, such as the making pf soap, earthenware, and glass, iron smelting, and for a long list of valuable productions which includes saltpetre, coal tar dyes, chloride of lime, bromine, and soda. ■ ' . ...

In the year before the war the exports of these. salts from Germany amounted to. ten million pounds a year. The whole world wants potash and the co-related salts, particularly for agriculture. Accessible potash- in Germany to-day is estimated at between 40 and 50 million tons.' At 10s a ton —a very l»w price indeed—there again is a capital value of at least—and probably much more than £20,000,000,000, Why,, on such an estimate of Germany's potential wealth, whatever the state of her bank coffers or the Imperial Treasury, should she be excused indemnities? On these three of her natural productions she has natural wealth greatly under-estimated in the foregoing at— £ Coal 170,000,000,000 1r0n..: 1,000,000,000 Potash .. 20,000,000,000 Total ...... 191,000,000,000 In that lies Germany's meads to pay off the financial disabilities imposed: by her on the Allied nations through her ruthless attack on freedom and civilisation, and in it also lies the curb by which the Allies can prevent "Junkerdcm" from disturbing the world's peace at any future time. .- An inter-Allied, conference might be appointed, when Germany is beaten, to sit permanently in Germany, controlling the indemnities she has to pay. Taxes might be imposed on her exports of all kinds, and particularly might a. tax be levied on her coal, iron ore, and potash on the bases «?f "per mined CAN EASILY PAY. There is plenty in Germany to pay, the great debt she owes to the Allies Irifl to the world. Her potash mines might be controlled by the high contracting Powers, and' her State railways be turned to the financial advantage of the Allies. ' The Allies can no longer consider Germans ahd German aspirations. They are outside, the pale of consideration. The Overseas Dominion Parliaments ■ have decisively said so, and the attitude ! of. France, Italy, the United States, and the vast body of opinion in this country has stiffened greatly of late as this European enormity.proceeds.to its close over the graves of thousands of our sons, and untold and undeserved loss and suffering to those who are left. There- ! fore I say: — i Make Germany pay, because she can afford to do so. i Make Germany pay, because she de--1 serves the punishment which only a j heavy' indemnity can inflict. Make Germany -pay, as the most decisive factor in crippling militarism and her adventures in the future. Thus, and thus only, can her great debt to humanity be atoned for in any tangible degree and her power for evil in the generations to come be effectively crippled. '