THE YOUNG PLAN TESTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20338, 20 August 1929, Page 8

THE YOUNG PLAN TESTED.

Understanding of the attitude taken at the Hague Conference by Air. Snowden is assisted by consideration of a test case 111 the adjustment of war debts, and one is supplied by the British reply to the proposals he hag rejected. It is the case of Italy. The Italian Government was very generously treated by Britain. The terms of the settlement agreed upon in 1926 were, indeed, as the reply states, "unprecedcntedlv favourable" to Italy. They were 33 per cent, easier than the terms obtained by that country from the United States, and were deemed adequate by Britain on the plea that Italy, entitled to a comparatively small share of reparation payments from Germany, should have special consideration. Beside this unconditional reduction, there was inserted in the agreement a clause promising additional clemency: if Britain at any time should receive more from reparations and Allied debts than she had paid to the United States, Italy's proportionate share of such surplus would be credited to her against future payments. Yet it has been proposed that Italy's share of the German annuities shall be increased at the expense of Britain, not with the object of helping Italy to meet her liabilities, but to provide her with a substantial surplus above those liabilities. No wonder the proposals are unacceptable to Mr. Snowderf, even though they modify the Young Plan to some extent. The agreement between Britain and Italy is binding, whatever the conference may determine, and the proposals rejected by him are tantamount to taking money from a man helplessly bound to give to another whom he has already voluntarily enriched with a selfsacrificing gift. Tested thus, the proposals are revealed as so palpably unjust that Mr. Snowden is compelled to resist them, whatever the effect on the conference.