Reparations and the Mark

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 293, 11 October 1922, Page 15

Reparations and the Mark

.THE ISABBEN tpi>l> OF. WAR. The German mark or shilling- (in. normal" times worth a shilling) is now. ten - for a penny. Everybody who holds German money Is passing It on, getting rid of it, buying goods with it, as fast as he can, for no one wants to hold ateadily depreciating paper (says the Scots "Forward," 15/7/22.) • There is thus "good work" in Germany: plenty of employment in the manufacture of goods to meet the great demand, of those who are passing on the paner marks. But the '■ people with fixed incomes and the workers who find that their paper wages are worth less and ever less in the markets—-they starve. ; Soon there v, T ill be an explosion.' Kighty million people will not slowly perish. If they are to die anyhow they may, £eel, as we might feel were we in their place, that they had bet-; ter die fighting those who were throt- l tling them. . . .■-■..: ; •«•■*.*«• And yet. a sudden or abrupt rise in the value of the -mark (i.e., its power to purchase more I commodities —in other words still, a sudden fall in the price of commodities) would instantly involve great unemployment. ■ ■■# * ■* « Thus we ai-8 governed. To this paas. have we all been brought by the Capitalist rulers of the world. ■.'-* * ;"* * The workers of France called for Barrabl>a3 Poincare, and now, as we read in Sunday's "Observer": "The German coal deliveries under the Spa Agreement have brought so much coal into France, and it can be sold at Bucli a loyv'pvicc that French coal reniains at tli-e pit-head unsaleable," THE 'FRENCH COLLIER ■ STARVES I EQUALLY , WITH HIS GERMAN I BROTHER. And the British collier chose Barabbas George,: who proposed in his British • speech," 11th. December, 1918, "to demand the whole cost of the war" from the Germans, and declared that "the Committee appointed by ths British Cabinet believe that it can be done." And they took ships and killed, our shipbuilding industry and the French took coal and killed our foreign, coal market. And the German mark is ten a penny, and we all sink in a common ruin. ..*.#■.# # No madness rcas ever like tinto this. We kill our trade and starve our workers and ail we get from Germany up to 01/i/22 is £46,647,615? (Sir Robert Home in the House of Commons, 16/2/22), and it costs us for the British Army of Occupation In Germany J :o collect the "indemnity" £55,000.000 (See Hansard, 14/2/22, giving "cost up io that date), Yv'e actually lost 6i millions in collecting- the indemnity, plus our Snan* cial and commercial ruin. Is there a statesman big , enough, great enough, courageous enougtv to demand that this nonsense be forthwith stopped? Is there no leader with the vision and the force to insist upon the cancellation of all our claims under the Versailles Treaty, and offer to write off our claims against France upon condition she: cuts her claims against Germany? Mr. AsquitU at Fa.isley .(6/2/20) delared that for his part he would write off" ttie "'British claims to indemnities. J. H. Thomas sees it. At th#-Raiiway-men's Conference last week, speaking of "maidn g- Germany pay," I\e declared:- — "There were only ihree courses open for her —to pay in gold, in kind, or in labour. There was not sufficient gold in the world to pay for the war, and no Government would be a party to the war being paid for by enslaved labour, So these tyro courses were .ruled out. Therefore Germany could only pay in kind. Unfortunately, however, as soon as Germany began to pay in coal and ships our people suffered from the evils of unemployment. We could not crush Germany, even if we wianted to, without ourselves having to pay a terrible price." Well., why doesn't lie fight the issue in the Labour Party to begin, with? Scaling down the .amount of reparations in accordance with. Germany's ability to pay is ao use. Whatever bathe amount of goods coming hare without "an equivalent export to pay for tlieiai,' lessens- employment in this [ country. Mr. Thomas sees It, and if Ihe will begin to rush tho Labour Party into a demand for an. irainediate cancellation of all indemnity payments to this -country he may have to suffer some'temporary abuse from ta.a ignorant Press, but he will earn a reputation for long-sighted statesmanship that seems to be going a-beggtag.