REPARATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18761, 15 January 1923, Page 5

REPARATIONS

POSITION REVIEWED. Assessment dissatisfies FRANCE. AMERICA NEEDED FOR FAIR SETTLEMENT. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S ARTICLE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 11. [The following and all of Mr Lloyd George’s articles are copyright by the United Press Association in America (all countries), copyright in Australia and New Zealand by the Australian Press Association, copyright in Britain by the Daily Chronicle. Reproduction in full or part is prohibited.] Mr Lloyd George continues; “What is the reparation uroblem? Why does it appear lurtuer from solution than evert 'ine public in ail lanos are perplexed and worried by its disturbing insolubility. The real trouble is not the solving of tile problem itself, but in the satisfying of the public opinion which surrounds u. Ido not mean to suggest that it is easy to ascertain what Germany can pay, or for Germany to keep on paying these sums once they are ascertained. The difficulty is purely financial, and it could be overcome. The heart of the probleip lies in the impossibility of at present convincing the expectant, indignant, hard-hit, and heavily-burdened people of France that the suras fixed Represent all that Germany is capable of paying. At first it was too readily taken for granted that the wealth which could bear a war debt of £8,000,000,000 could surely afford an indemnity of £6,000,000,000, provided it was made a first charge on the national revenues. It took time for the average mind to appreciate the fundamental difference between payment inside and transmission outside a country, “When I think of the estimates framed in 1919 by highly-trained experts as to Germany's capacity to pay cash over the border, I am not disposed to complain of the French taxpayers’ impatience at the efforts of successive conferences to cut down these sanguine estimates to feasible dimensions. lam content to point with pride to the fact that the commnnsense of the more heavily-burdened British taxpayer long ago taught him to cut his loss and keep his temper. When his example is followed all rouhd the reparations problem will be solved, and the financiers can then soon find a way out. “It is always assumed by those who have not read the Versailles Treaty and the letters accompanying it that this much-abused and little-perused document fixed a fabulous indemnity. The Treaty may have defects, but that is not one of them, for it fixed no payment. It stipulates that the Reparations Commission should assess the damage and compensation, also that the Commission—and this is always overlooked—should ascertain how much of that claim Germany was capable of paying. Even so fair a controversialist as Signor Nitti ignores the latter provision, and treats every alteration in the annuities fixed in May, 1921. as a departure from the Treaty to the victors’ detriment, whereas every modification was effected under the Treaty s machinery. , „ , “But there has undoubtedly been a fundamental departure from the Ireatv, and the whole trouble has arisen by this departure. The Treaty provided that the Reparations Commission should include an American representative. With the exception of America-, all the other Powers were pecuniarily interested in the verdict. Therefore it was not a very impartial tribunal.. Still Britain, as a great trading community more interested m a settlement than in a few millions more or le«s of an indemnity wrung out of Germany. would, with America’s presence on the Commission, have constituted a guarantee for moderation. Now the only disinterested party has retired from the tribunal, while the most interested party is in the chair with a casting vote on certain duestions. That is not the Treaty which Germany signed. The balance of the Trcatv has been entirely upset. 1 ‘What really needed is to restore the balance and to secure a fair verdict on the onlv question, which is: How much can 'Germany pay?’ You must make up voqr mind whether vou wish to ruin a debtor or to recover the cash. It vou want beef from a cow you must forego the milk. You must find out what vour debtor can pay and then proceed bidiciously, patiently, and firmly to recover the amount. Ido not mean what he can pay hv condemning him to lilo servitude and poverty. No brave man can stand that for long. “If you scrape butter_ from the bread of every German child for 30 years yoii may add a milliard or two of .gold marks to the indemnity, but is not what the Treaty intended. You must fix what Germany can pay without condemning a generation of workers to Egyptian bondage, and their children to semi-star-vation. Every oppression, if-persisted in, ultimately ends in ruin. The only hope of a fair and final decision is to secure a representative of America on the adjudicating body. Unless America takes a hand the real settlement will be postponed until the hour of irreparable mischief strikes. If America cannot occupy the vacant chair I despair of any real progress being made. , “The Allied Ministers can accept decisions from a body representing the leading Rowers who won the war, which they dare not take on their own responsibility. That is the essence of the position. Statesmen could accept the Judgment of an international tribunal without being taxed with the responsibility for its conclusions. British opinion will not accept a settlement based on the assumption that abatements in reparations must be discounted by the British taxpayer. She is w’lling to stand in with the Allies for ]o«s as well as for profits. Britain would resent bitterly that the loss must necessarily be her' share whilst such profit as there is belongs to others. The Amei icans also would not see the force of a settlement at their expense, as if they had been condemned to pay an indemnity. The offer to hand over German bonds to Britain is an insult to the intelligence of the British public. “Let ns go hack to the Treaty. There is no need to revise it. All that is needed is to restore it. If America reappears on I'm tribunal she need not accept the rest of the treaty. A. and N.Z. Cable.