THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1922. EUROPE’S TOTTERING FABRIC.

Grey River Argus, 13 July 1922, Page 4

THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1922. EUROPE’S TOTTERING FABRIC.

■ Are the older countries played out? : A British Cabinet Minister now argues ■ imperial preference means a bigger exportation of men as well as coinmodiI ties to the Dominions. To concentrate , all attention on Dominion development j along capitalistic Lines will pay better • says Colonel Amery, than “Wasting any more time over the tottering fab- , ric of Europe!” It is therefore easy, . despite the talk of another war, to . see how awful are the alternatives j which the late war has left to the ; millions of suffering, scarified Europe. • Every people there is in dire straits. [ Not only are Germany, Austria and i Russia economically in a state of collapse, but menaced economic interests are causing the Allies to quarrel. It is clear the Treaty of Versailles must be further revised, for it menaces the economic welfare, not only of the vanquished, but of the victors. Germany is unable to pay, and Britain's war debts are a halter round her neck. Home time ago, it was calculated Britain had lost £5 for every mark Germany paid; but now it is clear France also is losing greatly by the exchange chaos. Britain, of course, no matter how she trades with the Dominions, needs a Europe that will trade, and needs it far more than France does, because the latter is the more selfcon tai nee] economically. With bigger political aims on the Continent than Britain, the French Republic yet seeks from Germany “fruits of victory” on the plea that the latter caused the war. France has 300.000 black troops drilled to dominate Central Europe; and, for political reasons, Britain has hosi- i fated to discountenance that policy ’ even at the expense of her trade. Al- 1 though hard up, Germany is getting | ahead of the Allies in Russia. Krupps, ! for instance, are already n the Don , Provinces, building a great agricul- | tural establishment on a huge conccs- 1 si on of 135,000 acres of land, and ship- i ping there tons of seed and thousands * of farm tractors. With Britain to- ' day, the choice lies between Western Europe and militarism on the one hand,

and Eastern Europe and trade on the other. Krassln’s latest promises at the Hague Conference that the Soviet will treat all nations fairly as to land and trade concessions, may put France offside. The British. Government’s professed fears that to press for the indemnity now may dethrone the German Republican Government, ami give the Junkers the reins, is an indication at least that France can expect from Britain lesser support as time goes on than heretofore given in enforcing reparations. Some time ago it was cabled that the German Reichstag had legislated for a compulsory loan of one thousand million gold marks, to bear no interest till 1925, anc( then only 2J per cent for five years, and thereafter four per cent. The loan was to have been levied on the basis of a tux on fortunes; but Britain now seems inclined to desist from enforcing it. Recently Germany was granted further time, to pay, but the Western banleers later refused to raise her a loan, though it was admitted she was doing her best to pay. France now favours a loan for Germany, showing that she recognises the inevitable at last. Since 191 S, war-ruined Europe has vainly sought a way out of the morass, and to-day there seems no better hope than before, and so British Ministers suggest looking for salvation to the Dominions, as markets and as new fields for her surplus people. Force is not going to save bankrupt Europe —any more than the Navy League is going to maintain the British Empire. If Britain’s debts are ,as Lloyd George says, fifteen times greater than Franco’s, she must seek trade instead of armaments, and she cannot get sufficient, by a long chalk, in her own territories, fot at least a generation or two yet. By then the Empire may have become economically and politically a memory. Tbe Dominions will be trading more largely with America and other new countries. Without doubt Europe, thanks to predatory capitalism, is a tottering fabric! Britain, the “richest country in the world,” cannot continue militarism and pay interest on her war debt. She cannot find enough to do now for her people. Her eight thousand millions of debt is non-productive. Even capitalist spokesmen there say the capital safeguarded and swaddled like the war loans, cannot, without facing common risks, expect to get a rate of interest, which, as prices fall, will double the debt! First of all ,there will be a cut in the rates of interest. After that the deluge—the debts will require to be cancelled; for paid off, they cannot be. What holds good of 'one ,will be true also of another country. New peoples will find a way to avoid 1 being exploited in trade any longer, for the benefit of the older ones. The world’s workers, also, will not rest content to be exploited for ever. Europe is on the eve of a big cleaning up. Russia has the prescription for the right brand of soap. It will be used in the West once its value is recognised. Then the difficulty of surplus population win be wiped out.