BROKEN IN BODY AND SPIRIT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14984, 11 August 1919, Page 3

BROKEN IN BODY AND SPIRIT.

OFFICIAL REPORT ON GERMANY

NOW

ALLIES CAN HELP

iKlvi\ Tel. Cony rights- Onitea Press Assn.) lAu-tralifui and N.Z. Cable Association!. (Received Anmist 11, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, August 9. A White l'aper reports that Dr. | Ernest Stirling and the agriculturists! sent to Germany declare that the Germans are broken m body and spirit owing to semi-starvation during tho war. A long time will be required to restore efficiency. They add that ii the Allies supply working capital to restart German : machines they will acquiie a measure of control obtainab'e m no other way, and the contain ty of a steady contribution to the expense .« i and damages of the war. Urgent- needs are food for the workers, concentrated feeding stuffs, manures for agriculture , raw materials, ■ chiefly cotton, wool . flax, leather, iron ore and certain utht ; ores. Of food, fat m the form of meat, oil. and • needs are immediately necessary.

GERMANY'S FUTURE. v MUST TREAD THE HARD PATH OF ECONOMY. BERLIN, July 9. — Germany is quickly to return to a peace-time finance system, said Mathias Erzberger, ViceChancellor and Minister of Finance, speaking at Weimar before the German National Assembly.

"The empire's needs* must be divided henceforth between home needs and indemnities," he said. "The year's expenditures confronting us will amount to 37.000,000,000 marks. lam firmly resolved tq tread the hard path of economy and" therefore have given out the watchword that from .October 1, 1919, there shall be no more items not detailed and there shall be no moiv war funds. The war finance system shall cease and a regular budget must be re-established."

After citing the returns to the empire from taxation measures prior to and .during the war, and estimating the revenue to be derived from mew tax bills. Hen- Erzberger said: "There still remains a sum of over ten billion marks to be covered. The ministry of finance has almost completed the drafting of two important bills levying new taxes which I intend to submit to the House before the parliamentary recess," he continued. "These call for a large single levy on property and a large tax on business turnover, but even if these bills are passed, the money for the payment of indemnities must be obtained m some other way. In the autumn new bills will be introduced m the National Assembly with the final object of covering this deficit. The iburdens of taxation will reach an absolutely terrible height. A floating debt of '72,000,000 marks is a constant danger and the removal of this debt is one of our mos' urgent tasks. There are two ways m which to do^ it — either its conversion "nto a funded loan, or its extinction b*v. big levies and a heavy property tax T do not jndulge tho hope that these two ways will immediately yield thr entire liquid amount of 72,000.000. G0T •«arks. It is the duty of propertied people not only to bow to. a state of compulsion, but to achieve an inward conviction as to the necessity of giving np all richee and all that is superfluous. Changes m the system of taxation will be speedily submitted to the Nation a; Assembly, and this reform will represent the fcompletion of the whole work."

Hen 1 Erzberger concluded by askinp ilxat taxation bills be disposed of before a recess is taken, adding : "The war taxes our riches. The world has. denied 's international justice. All .^he more passionately, and energetically, however, will we work for the homeland again and, flourishing m justice, . concentrate our . care and endeavor upon th\ poor, but just Gorman.

"I will have nothing to do with suggestions for the- annulment of wai loans or a declaration of general bankruptcy. My highest aim is to establish justice m the entire taxation system. The income from capital must be* taxed nnich more heavily than the inoomo from work. An inheritance tax and a heavy tax levy on property will be the initial step that will be taken. The empire's income must be increased 903 per cent, and that of individual estate^ and commmie£Vs.pe*haps> 100 per csit Such enormous changes require fresh .neasures." ' : .