The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922. GERMANY IN DISTRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 18057, 26 August 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922. GERMANY IN DISTRESS.

It is 'becoming evident that Germany is really in a very Kid way. For months past there have been such contradictory reports on the reality of her distress that the average reader has becomo confused, and has see-sawed between the.' opinion that Franco has all along been perfectly right in insisting that, if she chose, Germany could find a way to make reparation, and should bo forced to do so; and the opposite view that, if anything uas ultimately to bo got out of her, she would have to undergo a period of careful nursing—That instead of being pressed for payment she should be given big credits to put her on her feet again. While tho French nation has usually been considered of volatile temperament and inclined to tho impulsive action characteristic of the Latin race, it has also been admired for its capacity of clear thinking. But apparently tho paradox contained in tho second of the alternatives set out above, coinciding though it may with tho Scriptural injunction to do good to them that despitefully nso you, has been too much for tho general body of French opinion; and already there aro rumors that Franco has begun*her threatened course of drastic action, and that her troops have invaded the Ruhr industrial district. If that is so, the satisfaction which France is likely to derive from Germany from this course of action will surely bo much moio than offset by the further training which it must . impose on her Entente with Britain, and to some degree with the other Allies. Recent developments indicate that Franco is likely to find this cut for herself by experience. In the first place, she has recently had a quiet reminder that if Germany is France’s debtor so is France Britain’s debtor. Furthermore, an extension of tho occupation of German soil, particularly of such an industrial centre as the Ruhr area, is more likely to dry up the possible sources of reparation than to produce any tangible payments, or even promises of payment. So far 1 ranee has not learned from experience, as the recent speech made by M. Poincare at Bar-le-Duc shows. Considered only in the light of sentiment, its logic was very hard to assail. Where it erred was on the score of practicality. Judged by tho late rapid course of events, its proposals aro utterly impracticable. Evidently tho bulk of the French nation, from the widespread nonparty approval accorded to the Bar-lc-Duc speech, is still swayed by sentiment alone. Yet in one corner of France there is the germ of opposing opinion which may yet, with the assistance of bitter experience, leaven the whole. Though tho Alsatians are said to hate the Germans even more than do other Frenchmen, their Chambers of Commerce have induced tho Poincare Government to cancel tho sanctions in Alsace because it was found that the sequestration of German property was ruining the country. There was provided here another instance of the proverb that there is no sentiment in business—ns the cable states, “In practice business men are not willing to sacrifice trade to sentiment.” This development in Alsace gives an index to what may 'be expected from France s deeper military penetration into Germany. If she clings obstinately to her present lino of thought and translates it into action the successive processes may be that, failing to get anything tangible from mere occupation (which is now the deadlock affairs have reached with the Rhino occupation), she will proceed to sequestration, which is a step along the road to annexation; and that would be dead in the teeth, of the spirit of the Versailles Treaty and of the Covenant of the League of Nations, as inevitably sowing the seeds of future war.

It has been set forth that three of the principal questions of supremo importance to Europe and to the whole world which demand speedy settlement are sound currency, the modification and fixing of the interallied debts and reparation payments, and the method of payment. So far as Germany is concerned iher currency has now degenerated into utter worthlessness, so far as other nations aro concerned, and is rapidly approaching that condition in regard to her own internal trancaciions. She chose to pursue the path of inflation, the bitter end of it now seems in sight, and she is galloping headlong to it. Sir John Bradhury and his colleague on the Reparations Commission have evidently failed with their well-meant advice to the German Government to cease printing paper money. It is too late to put on the brake, the hill becomes much steeper as the bottom is approached, and what ■will happen when it is reached can only be guessed. On the second of tho three questions, that of modification of reparations, the Allies are willing to help Germany except that France inexorably refuses. On the third there seems to bo unanimity, reached after the briefest of experience, that payment in kind harms the recipient, and for a start at any rato helps the payer. There was the exasperating phenomenon of unemployment rife in the victorious countries, while vanquished Germany was a hivo of industry. But Germany’s industrial boom, based as it was on flimsy financial foundations, now seems on the verge of collapse. Tho mark is so valueless that tho stago is being rapidly reached when it will not buy raw material from abroad to keep German, manufacture going. Then there will be unemployment, and the problem of living# will be aggravated by a soaring cost of living, for already German shopkeepers are daily doubling prices in terms of the rotten paper currency. Experts fear that Germany is rapidly following in tho wake of the old core of tho dismembered Austro-Hungarian Empire on the road to ruin. Austria now seems to be comparable to a" bankrupt estate ripe for realisation and division. Can such a thing happen to Germany? Tho scale of the catastrophe is so much bigger that it seems almost inconceivable. Yet the speculators in Holland, Britain, America, and here also, who by buying German marks have virtually been gambling on the life and death of a great European Power, appear to think it possible. If that -happens it looks certain that tho disaster’ and its effects will not he confined to the financial sphere, just as they certainly will not bo restricted geographically by tho physical frontiers of Germany*