The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1923. THE REPARATIONS CRISIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18295, 11 January 1923, Page 6

The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1923. THE REPARATIONS CRISIS.

I ■ ■■■*.■ 1 France pursues her attempt to force ian issue of the reparations dead- | lock. Her troops and industrial j workers are being pushed forward ] into the Ruhr. She seeks to seize j the great coal and iron resources I there, as well as the factories that | make the Valley one long line of ! blast furnaces, in order to extort I payment that she claims Germany I has shammed inability to make. ! From the time of the peace an alterj native has been before her: either i to assist in a general effort to re- | store German finances so that her j old enemy might be in a position to i make payment, or to insist on Ger- ; many being crushed under the treaty | obligation. The former course, in j which the ultimate salvation of all | Europe lies, France has persistently ; declined to take. Although there i have been occasional moderations of I her demands for drastic action, she ; has allowed suspicion and fear of j Germany to dominate her. The ! sage counsel of her Allies has been j largely unheeded. A typical ini stance occurred early last year. I The German exchange, already in I a parlous state, continued to weaken, ! and it was becoming increasingly | obvious that it would be impossible I for Germany to make more than a i small portion of the covenanted anjnual payments. At this juncture, | the Reparations Commission called } to its aid a group of bankers, inj eluding Mr. Pierpont Morgan, of I America, in the hope of arranging a ] loan to Germany for the purpose of J meeting the immediate claims of I France and Belgium. This committee of bankers concluded that no ,l loan could be raised on Germany's J credit unless the reparations amount j were reduced to a figure within that J country's ability to meet and they j asked for authority to report on 1 Germany's capacity to pay. A i majority of the commission agreed jto this course, but France stoutly ! resisted it, refusing to consider any | writing down of Germany's debt to | her unless the Allied claims against ! herself were greatly modified. That i unbending attitude has been maini tained more or less rigidly - ever j since. It met the recent American i proposal that a committee of finanj cial experts should investigate Ger- | many : s ability to pay. No answer '■ has yet been forthcoming, although I it- is clear that France received and | understood the proposal. That same j attitude brought the Paris Confer- .'; ence of Premiers to an end last 'week without agreement on Mr. j Bpnar Law's scheme. That attij tude continues to dominate France. | It is manifest in the French press, lin the utterances, of ' prominent j Frenchmen, and in the actions of ! the French Government. It is unthinkable that there is not at least a small' body of more rational opinion in France-— .apparent hesitancy of both M. Poincare and Marshal Foch to take precipitate military action in the Ruhr .is indicative of a wiser counsel's influence —but for the moment it is a France ! intolerant of the thought of Germany's revival that stands in the | way of Europe's peace and the i world's good. ] There are indications of Belgian i and Italian co-operation with I France in this latest attempt to ex- < tort full payment from Germany, j but the considered opinion of Britain i and America is clearly against it. I There is no cleavage on the ques- | tion whether Germany should payi Culpability for the war and its dei yastation is Germany's without a j doubt, and reparation is due. France I and Belgium have suffered terribly, land their restoration is a solemn | obligation that Germany must not ! be allowed to shirk, whatever may I be done about other liabilities under | the Versailles Treaty. . Evidence ! accumulates that Germany's default j has been due to sheer inability to j meet the obligation, not to defiance lof it. But, supposing Germany's j case is not so bad as it is made I out to be, is France to decide | whether the default is due to Ger- | man perfidy or poverty 1 So far, j she has refused to listen to her own | Allies in their urging, m no pro--1 German spirit, that adjustment of I the reparations must be made she ] has even affected not to hear a plea ! that Germany's capacity to pay i should be the subject of an independent inquiry committing nobody Ito act on its finding. That attitude, i I if persisted in, will put France out ■, of court when conference about the j whole matter is resumed. For it • must be resumed. Occupation of I the Ruhr by France is not the last ! stage of the reparations conflict. 'LThe utmost it can achieve is a precipitation of that last stage, when ' I in the light of all the facts inter- .! national "indebtednesses, including I those of France herself, will be . ■ settled at the round table of the \ nations. It will ■ stand France in ! poor stead then to have injured | Europe, or at least menaced Europe, • ! with a catastrophe by this reckless adventure.

[ It is this failure to look beyond i the immediate present that lies : be- J hind the Ruhr adventure. Keep-] * ing things in perspective, French! statesmanship would see - that this action must provoke an eventual | response detrimental to France. The j immediate result, if the present j a course is pursued to the bitter end, i a may be the replenishing of the coffers of France. But at what eventual cost? That will profit little if * Europe's economic recovery is re- j tarded, and the embers of German! v militarism be blown into leaping : / flame, and France be turned into | a braggart nation. The occupation a of the Ruhr is calculated especially to arouse anew the frontier resent- \ » ments that have ever been the bane of these two peoples. To cripple = Germany to-day may seem a gain, but it will bring a to-morrow full of bitter revenge. Germany cannot be perpetually subjected. Natural ifi- \ creases of population will ere long cause the old enemy of France to outnumber her, and in that day the ! Ruhr will be remembered. - The best course for France, as for Germany and the world, is to help Germans to forget that their old Empire and their new Republic were forged in the fire of war. The most successful " peaceful penetration," 2 which M. Poincare and Marshal Foch declare is their real aim, is 1 achieved in a fellowship 'where 3 sword-rattling is a lost art.