CHALLENGE TO HITLER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 22 December 1938, Page 5

CHALLENGE TO HITLER

OFFERS TO PAY £83,000 JEWISH FINE HOW HE WOULD DO IT [By Air Mail—Special Correspondent] LONDON, 3rd December. Mr Montague Samuel, the London property dealer, who has offered to pay the entire fine of £83,000,000 imposed on the German Jews by Herr Hitler, this week told how he would do it. He is offering the Nazis German marks of 1920. “British people,” said Mr Samuel, “paid £250,000 sterling for German money of that period. “Then the German Government defaulted on them. Today, of course, they are not in circulation. “But 1 see no reason why Hitler —if he claims that in his present actions he is doing the honourable thing—should not accept what amounts to his own dishonoured cheque in payment of this debt he has created. “It is a perfectly decent commercial transaction.” Mr Samuel said he could lay his hands on a billion of these marks any time he likes. On the Continent people paid the equivalent to £370,000,000 for them. “I am making this offer in all seriousness,” he said. “It is no joke. I could send the marks off within a week.”