Snowden Justified

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 745, 19 August 1929, Page 9

Snowden Justified

POWERS’ SCHEME REJECTED Inadequate, Unsatisfactory PLAN TO FLEECE SMALLER POWERS (United P.A. —-By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and, A'.Z. Press Association) (United Service) .Received 9.40 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. AN authoritative commentary, issued from the British dele*l gation to the Reparations Conference at The Hague, contends that the presentation of the fou r Powers’ written proposals justifies the strong line Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has taken throughout the week. It was his Note to M. Henri Jaspar (Belgium), which was called in some quarters an ultimatum, that speeded up the proceedings by producing yesterday’s memorandum; but the British delegation cannot but regard the terms of such memorandum as unsatisfactory.

Its purport appears to he that Britain is already deriving considerable advantages from the Young Plan, but that the four Powers out of the generosity of their own hearts, are prepared to make further concessions. Instead of giving Britain 80 per cent, of her full demands, she is to get only 20 per cent, and this involves no sacrifices on the part of the four Powers, but will have to be at the expense of smaller Powers, and Britain is not prepared to accept concessions at their expense. * BRITAIN REPROACHED British circles comment upon the reproach directed at Britain that she is sacrificing world peace for a few paltry millions. The view taken here is that it is not a question of money alone. Britain’s position is that after all the sacrifices she already has made tlve time has come to call a halt. If she made the concessions asked her action would simply be used to manipulate further concessions if the occasion arose. Britain is not placing obstacles in the way of the pacification of Europe. It would be more true to say that the people who allege that are not prepared to do anything for pacification unless Britain pays them for it. The Sunday newspapers strongly and unanimously support Mr. Snowden.

Britain must recover, either by annuities or capital, the sum of £2,400,000 a year which she loses under the Young Plan proposals, as well as a share in the unconditional annuities, approximating to her due percentage, if not equivalent to it. The memorandum deals seriatum with the arguments and proposals put forward in the Note of the four Powers. It states that the British Government cannot agree that the work of the experts must be dealt with as a whole and cannot be again discussed. The experts were independent and did not bind their Governments, and this was recognised by the British and French Governments before their appointment and during their meetings. The British Government has no desire to alter any fundamental part of the Young Plan, and will accept it as regards the payments to be made by Germany, which svas the main point on which the experts’ advice was asked. All that the British Government desires is to bring the distribution of the whole annuities and unconditional part of it into conformity with the existing agreements, which are binding upon the Governments which signed them. ITALY WELL TREATED

The Young Plan does not, as suggested by other Powers, offer to Great Britain advantages which compensate for her sacrifices under it. The Italian Government had claimed and obtained a settlement of its war debt to Great Britain on unprecedentedly favourable terms, under the plea that it was entitled to a comparatively small share of reparations; yet it was now proposed that Italy’s share in the German annuity should he increased at the expense of Great Britain, not for the purpose of covering her debt liabilities, but in order to provide her with a substantial surplus over and above the full war debt cover. The new proposals for deliveries in kind, which are vague and indefinite, are less favourable to Great Britain than the Versailles Treaty, and in any case would not compensate Great Britain for her other financial sacrifices. SUPPORT FOR CHANCELLOR Mr. Snowden's attitude continues to receive the wholehearted support of the British Press. “The Observer” says: “Certain minimum rights were secured to this country at Spa. In reliance upon them, Britain has settled with her debtors on terms of unparalleled generosity. The country is behind Mr. Snowden in his refusal to have them whittled away.”

French Press comment, however, continues to be bitter.

BETTER EFFORT WANTED

SNOWDEN’S CANDID REPLY TO THE POWERS MUST GET THAT £2,400,000 British Official "Wireless Reed. 11.30 a.m. RUGBY, Sunday. A meeting of the Financial Committee of The Hague Conference, whiph had been arranged for yesterday, was last night postponed until next week, to give the Powers concerned a further opportunity of formulating proposals to meet the British claim for equitable treatment in regard to the disposal of certain reparation annuiities. This postponement was arranged after M. Henri Jaspar, on behalf of France, Italy, Belgium and Japan, had handed to Mr. Philip Snowden, the British Chancellor, a memorandum containing the proposals which Mr. Snowden verbally intimated to be unsatisfactory, and to which he sent a written reply today. It is understood by correspondents that the memorandum was vague in its terms, and that it failed to cover the points in the British demands; but its contents are considered to be confidential for the time being, in order to give the Powers an opportunity for further consideration.

The “Sunday Times” says: “Throughout the war and ever since, Great Britain has been making heavy sacrifices to help her Allies and neighbours, and it is high time that they began to show some consideration for us. The extra £2,000,000 that is in dispute could well be found by those countries that have had hundreds of millions from us since 1914. Our European friends should realise that this country is in earnest, and means to have the Young Plan revised.”

The delegates concerned with political problems had several informal conversations, but the meeting of the four Foreign Ministers, Mi'. Arthur Henderson, M. Briand, M. Hyams and Dr. Stresemann, which had been contemplated for yesterday, has also been postponed. TERMS OF BRITISH REPLY

The British delegation’s reply to the inadequate proposals of the four creditor Powers consisted of a covering letter and a memorandum. The former suggests that if the conference is to succeed a further and more serious effort must be made to meet the British position, and that the Note from the other Powers only repeats In a vague manner the suggestions already discussed and rejected by the British delegation as quite inadequate. The British delegation claims no unfair advantage, but is simply asking for the rights to which it is entit’ed under existing arrangements. Great

BISHOP HUS OUT

SEES WORK OF DEVIL IN POLITICS RICH PEOPLE ASSAILED Reed. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, Today. In an address at Saint John's Church, Birehgrove, Dr Horace Crotty, Bishop of Bathurst, made an attack upon “certain minorities, who are keeping the people apart and are destroying fellowship in order that political programmes might not be thwarted,” He described it as the work of the devil. “It is no use praying,” he said. “It is time that professing Christians got out and did something.” The bishop accused the wealthy classes of engaging in a pleasure chase and ignoring their responsibility in social service. They must get snobbery and social hate out of the church and out of the people, he added.