GERMANY’S DUPLICITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18537, 24 April 1922, Page 7

GERMANY’S DUPLICITY.

DUE TO SUSPICION AND FEAR. GENOA INFECTED WITH LIES. MR J. L. GARVIN’S VIEWS. LONDON, April 22. (Received April 23, at 5.5 p.m.) Mr J. L. Garyin, editor of the Observer, writing from Genoa, says that Germany’s signature of the Russian Treaty was due to a spasm of suspicion and fear. ‘Genoa is infected with lies. The Germans heard quite erroneously that the Russians and the Allies had nearly reached an agreement, and feared that their own economic interests with Russia might be prejudiced. It was not the Bolshevists’ fault that the treaty was not signed at Berlin en route to Genoa. The Russian and German peoples are economically necessary to each other. The Bolshevists would have been fools not to have signed, instead of offering the mailed fist as at Brest-Litovsk. Germany came with cap in hand. The Allies were at first stupefied and astonished, and then consolidated. Mr Lloyd George had risked the Entente’s continuance and his own political existence in order to restore the working concert in Europe by including Russia and Germany as members of the conference, yet the first use the Germans made of their ne\v footing of equality was to invoke the old fatal doctrine of two camps. The Germans have themselves to blame if it were universally felt that they would next proceed to a political and military alliance. France’s first impulse was to smash the Conference and occupy the Ruhr district. Could Mr Lloyd George and Italy save Germany from herself? Our fate hung upon a hair, but fortunately the skies cleared. The Russian reply was far more reasonable than was expected. The German difficulty has been overcome, apart from the legacy of the friction and the lessened trust. Next week must make or break the conference. It is most likely to last a fortnight. lam convinced that it will achieve greet and memorable results unless France prevents it. Mr Lloyd George is, as he was in the blackest moments of the war, indomitable and formidable. His dexterity is dragging the conference towards success. He believes it will achieve big purposes, and will form the basis of subsequent disarmament on which a new Europe will be based. He believes that continuous work onwards will be carried out towards this end by a ■strengthened and extended League of Nations, that the world’s life depends on this, and that the alternative to it Is the fall of Europeon cilivisation. ” —A. and N.ZCable.

Continuing, Mr Garvin said : “We hear rumours of action from Paris which, instead of breaking up the Conference from within, will torpedo it from without. The pretexts are baseless. There is not one word of truth in the report of a military convention between Germany and Russia. Nothing but French intransigeance itself could organise by degrees that final solidarity leading to another Armageddon. The wrecking of tile Genoa Conference by a torpedo from’Paris would mean the ultimate suicide of France, for Great Britain cannot commit suicide in sympathy with her. Either there will be the beginning of a new Europe after the Genoa, Conference or soon there will be no Entente.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. FRANCE’S HOSTILITY. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S DIPLOMACY. A CRISIS AVERTED. EUROPEAN CURRENCIES. COMMON STANDARD DESIRABLE. GENOA, April 22v (Received April 23, at 11.5 p.m.) The Conference suffered a further shock when it was reported that Francephad sent a Note to the Powers declaring that the Russo-German treaty violated the Versailles Treaty, At the outset it looked as if a major crisis had arisen. The British delegation was hastily sum-, moned, followed'later in the day by a meeting of the five big and the four small Powers, at which M. Barthou argued that the treaty contravened the Cannes resolutions, to say nothing of the other treaty engagements with Germany, and that it would be incompatible with E rench dignity to continue to co-operate' with the German delegates on, Russian affairs. The French delegation also referred to the Russian comments on the London experts’ report. M. Barthou declared that French exports could not sit on an expert committee appointed to deal with M. Tchitcherin’s reply until these comments had been discussed. ' Mr Lloyd George pointed out that Lie comments were unofficial and were merelv issued in the press as Russian propaganda and as part of their normal activity. He added that the Russians admitted that the comments applied to their past opinions and not to their present ones. Mr' Lloyd George declared that he wished to get on with the Conference instead of having time taken up with the crisis, otherwise he would havesto explain to the British,Empire and the' world generally who was responsible for these delays. After further discussion, the meeting broke up in apparently a happy frame of mind. It is proposed to resume the general work to-morrow. It appears as if the anxiety caused by the French action has been dissipated. The Financial Commission approved of the Sub-committee’s report for presentation to the plenary conference. In addition to the recommendations already published, it declares that it is desirable that the European-currencies should be based on a common standard. There should be a gold standard only, but so long as the deficiencies in the annual Budgets are met by thecreation of fiduciary money or bank credits no currency reform is possible, and no approach to the gold standard can be made. The balancing of the Budgets requires adequate taxation, but if the Government expenditure is so high as to drive taxation to a point beyond what can be provided out of the countrv’s income, the taxation may itself lead to inflation. Therefore a reduction in Government expenditure is the true remedy. The re-, port suggests an international convention to centralise and control the demand for gold. Credit should be regulated to maintain the currencies at par with one another and also to prevent undue fluctuations in the nurchasing power of gold, although the discretion of the central banks should not be fettered by definite rules on the point.—A. and N.Z. Cable. NIGGLING TACTICS. FRENCH DELEGATES CONDEMNED. A SUICIDAL POLICY. LONDON, April 23. (Received April 23, at 11.50 p.m.) The Sunday Times Genoa correspondent says it is most difficult to deal with the French delegation. What they expect to gain by their niggling tactics is not clear. The Russo-German Treaty is signed, anyway, but even that might have been avoided but for M. Barthou’s atempt to keep the Germans outside the inner workings of the Conference. The present French tactics can only succeed in driving their two betes noires closer together.— A. and N.Z. Cable.