PAYING FOR THE WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 969, 19 March 1924, Page 9

PAYING FOR THE WAR.

GERMANY’S ALTERNATIVES.

RENTS SCHEME CONSIDERED

FEARS OF VAST TRUST

Behind die scenes in Berlin the German Cabinet and a committee ot Lo members of the Reichstag, leprese ing the nition, are reported to have been devo ling their attention to tn question of finding the money " 1 . will be used ultimately for reparation payments. The debates on the souices to be tapped were based on two alteinatives. father the whole nation is to particip ite by a Government seizure of 50 per cent, of every rent paid by every hot seliolder throughout the Reich, or die settlement is to be vested in the hands of a few capitalists by the materialisation of the old plans of the industrialists, made actual by Herr Recluerg’s renewed proposals m P This suggestion, by means of which French capital would participate m the best-paying German undertakings to the extent of 30 per cent, after the Germar capital lias been increased to allow of shares to this amount being allocated, was thought to have found favour in French eyes. While i tlm German Government energetically denied any officially autlioiised basis fir this offer it was declaied to be engaged in threshing out, by painfully complicated stages, the process by wl ich this great ■l* raucoGerman coal, iron and potash trust and the consequent control of Europe by a small group of capitalists could be avoided. The logic and clarity of the alternative proposi ;ion, which would enable that vast percentage of the moneys received by landlords in pre-war rents, which was aid out immediately to mortgage ho !ders, to flow directly into the coffers o: the Reich, met with opposition from three quarters; Ihe fact that the greater part of the middle class destitution had been caused by these same mortgage holders being paid back in paper money during the inflation period doubtless the legal objections raised. A decision in Germany’s highest Court of Justice at Leipzig upheld the claim of the mortgage-holder not yet paid out to receive the full sum due in gold marks. A Berlin Court followed suit with the modification that 75 per cent, of the original sum be paid in gold. Though not one in a hundred mortgage cla ms remained unpaid, as the holders clamoured for money at the time, the se pronouncements aroused much bitterness among the dispossessed.

The third block of opposition came from the Socixlist side, whose fears, as wages and rents were bound to keep pace together, appeared not so much logically founded as directed by the principle that capital alone must pay’ for the war.

In spite of these difficulties it is reported that the German Government intends to carry the plan through, with the possible emendation of a refund of 10 per cent, to all the'original mortgage-holders. No doubt is entertained that in the long run sufficient money can be relied on from rents in the regular form of a levy on the whole population to satisfy France’s demands and prevent the capitalist control of Europe.