NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19124, 16 September 1925, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AMERICA'S DEBT CLAIMS. "The war debts undoubtedly are a great impediment to the peace in Europe. Undoubtedly they ought to be handled in some fashion—cut down very likely, adjusted so that some of them shall offset others," says Hnrper's Magazine. "The Administration here, iharged with the duty of collecting money due to the United States, uses as much • diligence about it as though it did not know that to us, as to all other nations, the peace of the world is vastly more important than the collection of' moneys due; as though it did not know that the last war in Europe cost us in two years three times as much as Europe's war debts to us, and that if a general war breaks out there again it would mean again even for us a season of calamitous disbursement. We have made a settlement with England with a result that is like a transfusion of blood from an ailing patient to a strong one—something much better deferred until the ailing patient gets more husky. The United States has not yet met the war-debts problem. It has done no more, except in the British settlement and the Dawes plan, than tease France about it. What would become of those debts if war in Europe blazed out again ? Suppose this was a problem of bankers, really able bankers, instead of one of politicians whose place and power depended upon votes? What would-the bankers do about those foreign debts ? One can imagine. They would reorganise Europe as railroads are reorganised. The different classes of creditors and owners would get out of the property what was compatible with tho operation of it and its continued existence and eventual prosperity." THE OUTLOOK IN BRITAIN. After consulting the British Chambers of Commerce, the president of tho association of those bodies, Mr. . Stanley Machin, recently addressed a letter to the President of the Board of Trade setting out tho economic position of the country, the cause of many of its difficulties, and suggestions for bringing about a better state of affairs, After pointing out how serious will be the consequences if, as r.eems likely, overseas trade shows a balance on the wrong side this year, Mr. Machin said that the opinion was general that the causes for decreased exports lie chiefly in.high costs of production, and this in turn is due to severe taxation, reduced output, high cost of transport and tho high cost of coal and raw material. He bluntly stated that a Budget of £800,000,000 is more than the country can bear, and that the position of British manufacturers has been rendered difficult in comparison with that of manufacturers in other countries by reason of the loans made to our Allies, of which the principal and interest remain unpaid. Mr. Machin insisted that immediate steps must be taken to reduce not only the national, but also the local expenditure. While it is recognised that excessive working hours are uneconomical, the need for workers to increase their output to lessen the cost of production was emphasised, and it was pointed out that in several industries a production bonus had been successful. The opinion was unanimous that disparity in wages between the sheltered and unsheltered trades should not be allowed to continue, and attention was drawn to the harm that is being done by agitators whose deliberate object is to create discontent. However great the relief that the long-awaited improvement in trade would bring, the serious point was made that it would appear impossible for the whole of the increasing population to be regularly and profitably employed, so that the encouragement and assistance of migration should be undertaken, and this matter should have the first consideration of Parliament. INFLATION IN GERMANY. An address on Germany's economic position was given recently by Dr. Schacht, President of the Reichsbank, at a meeting of the National Association of German Industry. He said he did not see much prospect of economic improvement in the near future. They still carried some of tho slags of inflation and the entiro distribution apparatus of their trade was still bloated enormously. In Berlin the number of firms registered rose from 31,000 at the end of 1913 to 61,000 in 1924. The number of joint-stock companies was estimated to have increased fourfold since before tho war. The directory of company directors and trustees showed an increase of 60 to 70 per cent, since 1914. There were still more than twice as many banks and banking firms in Germany as before the Avar. All that pointed to a truly terrible unproductivity of their economic apparatus. Dr. Schacht referred to the "great number of unnecessary undertakings," to the advance of retail price as compared with production cost and, remarking that he was generally in the unenviable position of having to say things which were not popular, expressed extreme regret that the stringency of money had not yet brought about a retrenchment of the entirely overstocked economic apparatus of Germany. Tho figures of bankruptcy statistics did not reveal failures which were never filed owing to lack of assets. Were those included, the number would be very much higher than before the war. Regarding the Dawes plan, Dr. Schacht said that surmises as to the impossibility of transferring the payments falling due under the scheme were just as premature as those to the contrary. The great economic and human ideas forming the very foundation of this plan threatened to pass into oblivion. The Dawes Report was an earnest and considered attempt to remind the rulers of the world of their economic responsibility upon which depended the material and spiritual welfare of their peoples. An attempt ,to represent the figures; of the Dawes plan as impossible at such an early stage might blunt that feeling of responsibility.