A DISALLOWED CLAIM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19550, 1 February 1927, Page 10

A DISALLOWED CLAIM.

The judgment of' the Court of International Justice against Germany's claim to • deduct from her Reparation payments, the sum of £450,000,000, paid by her to compensate her own nationals for war losses, will be hailed with satisfaction everywhere outside of Germany. There the Dawes plan, which fixed a schedule of reparation payments in keeping with Germany's proved ability to pay, has- recently been outspokenly condemned by many politicians. Especially have Labour leaders indicted it as a device to shackle the. German proletariat to the chariot wheels of Anglo-American capitalism. These protests have been echoed by the Nationalists, and pressure was brought to bear upon the Government to present this claim for rebate. It was wholly unreasonable. The nationals involved were chiefly those whose properties in Alsace-Lorraine were sequestrated, and there were attached to the claim Germany's losses by transference of rights and interests in the Shantung railway and in public utilities in Russia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, China and her own lost territories. These losses were all direct consequences of the war, and it is absurd to suggest that the Allies should bear them or that German subjects should be immune from their incidence. Entailed by Germany's own action, which must be held to implicate all her subjects, a decision that made the Allies bear them would have been preposterous. The tribunal — not to be confused with the old Hague arbitration panels—was established to deal with claims between Governments only, and includes a German judge. Its finding, although bound to arouse German ire, will incidentally strengthen among others confidence in the World Court as one of the most serviceable institutions of the League of Nations.