The A.B.C. Of Reparations

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

The A.B.C. Of Reparations

WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH OF ECONOMIC DISORDER.

(By Wickham Stead in the London Sunday Times.)

I wish that people who talk and write about " reparations " or " war debts " could be made to tell an elementary school what it is all about. Then they would have to clear their own minds and be simple. If they really knew what they were talking about, I think they would say something like this:— Not so very long ago there was a Great War. It began because everybody in Europe was afraid of everybody else. All nations were armed to the teeth, and all feared that others might want tio lord it over them. At last two of! the nations, Austria and Germany, thought they could hit the others so hard and so quickly as to knock them down. They did a lot of damage. But the others hit back harder, forced Germany and Austria to sign a paper saying they had " begun it," and made them promise to pay for the damage done. This promise to pay for damage was called " reparations." While they were hitting back the second lot of nations began to run out of cash. They had spent pots of money on guns and food and things to shoot at the nations which were shooting at them. So the poorer borrowed from the richer until the rich grew poor in their turn. Then those which had been rich borrowed from America, who, after a time, joined them in the fight and helped to win it. These borrowings were called " war debts,"

SIGNING 1.0.U.'5. At the end of the war all the nations in Europe were poor without knowing it. It is easy to live on borrowed money, hard to pay it back—all the harder when it has been spent on smashing things up. If they had been sensible they and America would have forgiven each other all these debts except what was really wanted to put together again the things that had been most badly smashed; and, after agreeing not to fight each other any more, they would have set to work to clear up the mess. But, after a fight, people are usually too bruised and too angry to be sensible. Forgetting that there was not enough money in the world to pay the whole bill for breakages, they talked oxl " making others pay." England, France, and Italy wanted to "make Germany pay." America desired to " make Europe pay." Presently they all signed 1.0.U.'s to everybody else, and tried to pay them off except America, who thought she owed nobody anything, not even for what others had done to win the war—until most of the nations in Europe found they were going " broke." Even America, who supposed she could live well by herself behind her high garden wall and take money from everybodf else, woke up to find that millions of her people were getting very poor, and that her housekeeping cash was running very short.

One very sensible German, called Baron von Soden, wrote not long ago that Germany's leaders have been wrong not to tell the people that, by trying to tear up the bit of paper, they were asking for another big row, in which Germany and most of Europe might Be smashed up for good. So, he said, let us at last be honest and reasonable. We cannot say that we like that bit of paper, and we do not really think that we alone began the war.

But let us have a holiday for ten years, let us forget about the war and the debts and so on, and see what comes of playing the European game together as a good team. Then we may find that] we are all such jolly good fellows that we shall not think of fighting again,

IF If Germany were to say something like this, and to do it, the nations of Europe could really wish each other a happy new year. France might come down off her heap of gold and show a smiling face over her garden wall. England would think that, as France was behaving nicely, she would be quite a good partner m helping to manage the European team. Even America would be puzzled, and might say to herself: " Those nations in Europe seem rather a friendly lot. I'd better join them and say nothing about their 1.0.U.'5." # And if America saw people in Europe knocking a few bricks off their various garden walls, so as to be able to talk to each other more easily, some bricks might come off the American garden wall as well. If the people who talk and write about " reparations " and " war debts " could understand that the whole world is an elementary school which wants to have Lhings explained to it simply the nations might begin to see what is happening to them and how to make thi js happen otherwise.

The nations in Europe which owed her money kept saying to her: " Let us off what we owe you, and we will let each other off what we owe to one another." America scratched her head for a while, and answered: "I have let you off a good deal, and I won't let you off another penny." So the European nations are going to hold a meeting and talk over what is to be done. This meeting is called the " Reparations Conference."

"I CAN'T PAY." The only one among them which has already made up its mind is Germany. She says: "I can't pay, and I won't pay." The others answer: " How can we pay America and each other if you don't pay us ? " France cries out: " I've let Germany off a big part of the money she owes me for damages, and she has faithfully promised to pay the rest. This I must have." England and America exclaim: "We've lent Germany a lot of money privately since the war, and she ought first to pay that." France replies: " If you have been so silly as to lend her money privately, that is your lookout. I want my money for damages." England and America aiiswer back that most of what Germany has already paid for damages has come out of the money tihey have lent her privately. At fchis France shakes her head, and says: " Germany is shamming. She has hidden away enough of her money in safe places abroad to pay us all; only she is trying to make us believe that her pocketis" are empty so as to get us to let her off everything." If the meeting talks like this, not much will come of it, and tfhen half Europe may really be " broke." But if all the European nations make up their minds to have done with squabbling—at least until they are rich enough to afford it 'again—they may get into the way of pulling together again, and. in time, may agree to tear up all their old I.O.U's. LEARNING A LESSON. There is some chance that they

THE PURPOSE AND PROSPECT OF EUROPEAN j CONFERENCES. !

KNOCKING BRICKS OFF INTERNATIONAL WALLS. !

may do so. They may begin by saying, all together, that if European nations cannot pay each other, nobody in Europe can pay America. This is the more likely because both France and England have begun to learn a lesson. Like America, France once thought that she, too, could live well behind her garden wall and sit comfortably on a nice little heap of gold in her parlour. Then she found that a lot of her people were getting hungry, and that gold cannot be eaten. Nor can it be used to buy things with if other nations won't take it or can't use it.

England fancied that, if she behaved prettily, America would let her off a good deal of her debt, and that with America and Germany she could then put France in a hole.

But since America has said that she won't let anybody off another penny, England has sidled up to France and has asked her whether something cannoti be done. France has answered: "If you will stop telling me and others that the paper we made Germany sign after the war, saying that Germany and Austria really 'began it,' must be torn up; and if you will agree that, whether Germany can pay or not, she really ought to pay, I may not mind letting Germany off for a good long time. " Then, if Germany is good and does not try to tear up that paper we made her sign, we will see what can be done to make things more comfortable for everybody in Europe."

A TEN YEARS' HOLIDAY. Germany may not quite like to see England and France talking in. this way; but she may grin and bear it if she feels that she is really going to be let off. Some Germans even think this would not be a' bad way out of all the bother, because, if Germany tries to tear up that bit of paper, France and other nations which do not want it torn up may give her another whacking.