The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1922. THE GERMAN BUDGET.

Evening Star, Issue 18158, 26 December 1922, Page 6

The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1922. THE GERMAN BUDGET.

The publication of the German Budget ve veals a state of affairs which in ordinary business concerns would spell bankruptcy. It is quite .possible that in this remarkably frank statement the German Minister of Finance has done a certain amount of window-dressing, only of the reverse kind to that to which, the public is accustomed to find in the accounts of companies which are in difficulties. In such cases the idea is to “turn the best side towards London,” and seek to uphold the concern’s credit. Germany has long been accused of patting the worst possible aspect on her financial situation in order to induce in her creditors, if not a sentiment of . pity, at least the conviction of the utter hopelessness of her ability to pay any reparations. Yet, granting that there has been exaggeration in the form of making bad worse, the actual situation must he a nightmare to the Treasury officials. Either the task of balancing the Budget has not been considered at all, or it has been simply regarded as a ludicrous ideal after the most cursory examination of ways and means. As has previously been pointed out, Germany’s financial conduct of the war was unsound from the very start. She gambled on victory throughout. Even when she realised that a win had slipped irretrievably through her fingers, and still kept on fighting for a draw, she was too deeply committed already to attempt revision of her financial system. It is being pursued to the bitter end, and what that end will be is beyond us to cay. Those in charge of the German national finances have imposed on top of what taxation is contemplated—a point on which tire cables say less than we should' like to know —a compulsory loan of a hundred milliards of marks. This is in reality a first instalment of a capital levy, because the security which the German Government can offer appears to be next door to nil. The announcement of a compulsory loan is likely to lessen still more what credit the German Government may be still able to command. ,Within the last couple of months a proposal was made in Switzerland that a capital levy should be made. It led to panic and a frantic struggle to put capital beyond the reach of the levy, the result being colossal loss to the Swiss community. The Germans would not be slower than the Swiss to safeguard their possessions from their Government. This process has, in fact, been already going on for some years. There is (evident a disposition on the part of many Gormans to follow their belongings beyond the frontier or to leave empty-handed a country which holds out the poorest of prospects of yielding more than a bare existence. The most recent mail adVioes of internal German conditions state that as long as the declining exchange resulted in ample foreign orders to German factories wage questions were easily adjusted. The frantic buying which accompanied previous heavy declines in the mark has, however, not been apparent with the latest drop. There are fewer orders, and the number of unemployed shows an upward tendency. Prices of commodities are still rising, and trade disputes are more frequent; It is therefore not surprising to be informed now by cable that Germans'ore'besieging'the various British Consulates in their country for passports for England, as the British legislation excluding former enemy aliens expired on Saturday last. One is accustomed to regard' the German as fairly thick-sldinned, but not by any means devoid of shrewdness. He must be fully aware that, on top of what racial feeling survives, there • will have to be added the hostility of the British masses to any immigration that will further congest the labor market and increase unemployment. An index of the internal conditions of Germany is afforded by this desire to seize any opportunity of getting away from them, no matter how poor the prospects elsewhere may be.