Germany's Debts

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 211, 4 September 1934, Page 7

Germany's Debts

Severe British Comment On Dr. Schacht’s Speech INABILITY TO PA V QUESTIONED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 6. No Ministerial or other official comment is made on the speech _ of Dr. Scbacht at Bad-Eilsen, but the British Press reaction to the choice which Dr. Scbacht offers to the nations, namely, to lend more money or to receive nothing on account of past debts is severely unfavourable. “Before accepting the moratorium, ’’ says the Daily Telegraph, “the creditors of Germany will require more than the assurance of Dr. Schacht that the capacity to meet obligations lias been exhausted or that German resources have not been frittered away by her internal policies.” The Times, after noting that the speech, coming so soon after the settlement of the dispute about the Dawes and Young Loans, lias created a bad impression, draws attention to the increase in the excess of British purchases from Germany over German purchases from Great Britain during the past few months. “So far as British creditors are concerned,” it adds, “there is even less validity than before in the claim that Germany cannot pay her debts because foreign countries will not buy her goods.” Proceeding, it says, “Dr. Schaeht’s version of the position is so one-sided and misleading that it alienates whatever sympathy might otherwise bo felt for Germany in difficulties which veiy largely she has created for herself. It, would be nearer the truth to «ny that Germany’s economic policy has been deliberately planned to make an export surplus impossible and thus to provido her with a plausible excuse for refusing to pay her debts.”