GERMANY'S FINANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20893, 8 June 1931, Page 9

GERMANY'S FINANCES.

DRASTIC NEW DECREES.

EVERY CITIZEN AFFECTED.

PENSIONS CUT 10 PER CENT

INCREASE IN UNEMPLOYED.

By Telegraph—Press Association—-Copyright. (Received Juno 7, 5.5 p.m.) BERLIN. June G. President .Tlindenburg has signed new financial dec/ees which are expected to yield £90,000,000 and to turn a deficit of £62,000,000 into a surplus of £28,000,000. Practically every German is nffeeted by the decrees. The pensions of 660,000 war invalids are reduced 10 per cent, and tlioso of an even greater number of widows' and orphans are reduced by a similar percentage. Two hundred thousand persons will be added to tho present 500,000 unemployed who receive no benefit of any description from tie Government. All taxpayers are to be subjected to a new income tax burden. REPARATION PAYMENTS. QUESTION OF SUSPENSION. MR. BORAH FAVOURS REVISION. (■Received June 7, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. June 6. The Washington correspondent of the New York Times says Germany's effort to suspend reparation payments is belie,ved to foreshadow a move to reopen the cntiro question of inter-Allied debts, with which probably disarmament questions will bs linked. Tho correspondent draws attention to (he fact that the Secretary of State, Mr. IL L. Stimson, and the Secretary to tho Treasury, Mr. A. W. Mellon, propose to spend the summer holidays in Europe, promising important conversations with Britain anc. France. The despatch states that tho chairman of the Foreign Relations Committeo of tho Senate, Mr. W. E. Borah, favours a revision of tho reparation payments. lie said a rev sion seemed to him economically expedient and fundamentally just. Nothing was to be gained by anybody by forcing Germany into a complete economic breakdown. No nation ought to want to grind down into unspeakable misery tins working people of Germany and there was where the great weight of this burden fell. Mr. Borah said increased armaments were the contributing cause of European depression, making it impossible for Germany to pay. . MINISTERS IN LONDON. CORDIAL BRITISH WELCOME. OBLIGATIONS TO BE MET. British Wireless. « BUGB\, Jane 5. The Chancellor of Germany, Dr. Bruening, and the Foreign Minister, Dr. Curfjus, vero cordially received on their arrival in England to-day by tho liner Hamburg, wh.ch was met in the forenoon by the destrayer Winchester off the Isle of Wight. As the German Ambassador boarded the Hamburg to greet the visitors the liner's band played the British National Anthem. A few minutes later the party went on board tho Winchester to the strains of the German National Anthem. On their arrival at Southampton the visitors were welcomed by tho Mayor and walked through tho lines of a police guard to a special t::ain, which carried them to London. The Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, accompanied by the loreiftn Secretary, Mr. Arthur Henderson, awaited tho arrival of the train at Waterloo station and extended a warm welcome to the visitors, who then drove to the Carlton Hotel, their headquarters during their stay. Both at the station and at the hotel they were cheered by gatherings of the public, which included many Germans.

Later the visitors spent some hours sight-seeing in the city and West End of London. In the evening Dr. Bruening and Dr. Curtius were the guests of the Prime Minister at dinner at the Foreign Office.

Dr. Bruening, on his arrival at Southampton, said: "We have no definite programme. We intend to have a friendly talk on all matters of common interest." He denied a report from Berlin suggesting thai, Germany was considering suspension of payment of interest on foreign loans, declaring that Germany would meet all such obligations.