EXPERTS’ COMMITTEE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 162, 10 June 1929, Page 7

EXPERTS’ COMMITTEE

LENGTHY REPORT.

SUBMISSION TO POWERS,

GERMANY’S PROBABLE BURDEN,

(United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). (Australian Press Association.) PARIS. June 8. Apart from the annexes, the text of the reparations report comprises 18,000 words. It is being published on Sunday. In the meantitme fresh details are available. It is anticipated that Britain will receive £20,900,000 out of each German average annual payment of approximately £100,000,000. ■ The report will be forwarded to tho Reparations Commission for submission to the Governments concerned. It it be adopted Germany will have a specific financial burden to carry for 50 years. The creditor Powers will receive fixed annual payments from Germany on tho Young plan, which vutually scraps the Dawes plan. Theoretically it comes into force on April 1, 1930, but actually it will begin to operate on September 1, 1929. Experts agree that all the complicated foreign controls imposed on Germany by the Dawes plan will disappear. Germany instead will freely undertake to pay an average annuity of £102,500,000 for 37 years, followed by an annuity of £85,000,000 for a further 21 years, covering war debts only. Tho annuities will be .divided unconditionally, or conditional on the latter being delayable with the approval of a committee to be appointed from tho directors of the International Bank. Germany’s liability for the costs ot the army * of 'occupation will cease on September 1, tho suggested,date from which the scheme should operate. Inis is regarded as meaning the evacuation of the Rhineland on that date.

BRITAIN’S SHARE,

PAYMENTS WILL VARY YEARLY

(Australian Press Association.) LONDON, June 8. The Dailv Telegraph’s correspondent at Paris states: “Britain’s share of the German payments will be somewhat under tho strict proportion winch hitherto has been in force, but there are compensating advantages. the share will no longer be a fixed proportion, but tho amount varies year by vear according to our debt payments, for which it provides a year-to-year cover. Besides this there is a constant amount to meet the claims of the Dominions. Our share in the early years will be on a somewhat liignei basis than the present proportion, but in tho later years rather lower. Reparations in kind will be maintained for ten years, beginning with £37,500,000, and decreasing to £lo,000,000. This limitation alone is worth a sacrifice from the British viewpoint. There is no concealment in British quarters that sacrifices have been necessary, of which Britain bears the largest share. The British delegation accepted these moro readily inasmuch as it was felt that it could only benefit from a settlement, while failure would bo a calamity. The International Bank will have a share capital of £20,000,000, subscribed by the central of the Powers represented on the Experts’ Committee, of which a quarter will be paid up immediately. The bank will act as a clearing house for tho payments of reparations and deliveries of raw materials, besides safeguarding Germany’s credit. Tho bank’s profits will be placed in a common fund to the benefit mainly of the Governments concerned, but 25 per cent, will be placed in reserve to assist Germany in paying her last annuities. It is estimated that France will receive a total of £968,350,000, compared with about £1,600,000,000 originally claimed by M. Poincare.

STABILISING EFFECT.

OPINION AT WASHINGTON.

(Australian Press Association.) WASHINGTON, June 8. The signing of the reparations report is hailed in administrative circles generally as a potent factor leading to stabilisation throughout Europe, with consequent benefits to the United States. One official, however, does not share this view. He suggests that the proposed flotation in the United States of an issue of German bonds provided in the settlement, may react unfavourably on credit conditions here and in non-European countries. This official declares that such an offering would probably cause American investors to lend less money to Latin America and Canada, which for many years have been heavy borrowers in the United States credit market.

MIXED RECEPTION IN GERMANY

(Australian Press Association.) BERLIN, June 9. The Press give the reparations agreement a mixed reception. Vorwerts describes it as a' 6tep forward politically, showing that the will to destroy Germany no longer exists. The Berliner Tageblatt states: “The most important aspect is not the evacuation of tho Rhineland that is bound to follow, but the evacuation of German economic life, which for a decade has been occupied by creditors who believed they had an unlimited right to exploit Germany.” The Vossischzoitung states: “There will be a revision plan when the Allied countries return to economic reason. It was absurd to think that one nation could pay reparations to others for two generations.” The Nationalist organs describe the agreement as fatal to Germany.