THE GERMAN INDEMNITY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16506, 6 August 1919, Page 6

THE GERMAN INDEMNITY.

NEW ZEALAND TO EXPECT LITTLE. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, August 5. Asked whether he expected that New Zealand under ilit? indemnity and reparation proposals in the peace treaty would receive any repayment for the expenditure incurred in connection with the part she tool; in the war, Sir .Joseph Ward said it was exceedingly dillicnlfc to forecast the outcome in this respect. lie was quite firm in his view that the enemy should pay the cost of the war and also bear the burden of the restoration of the ruined cities, towns, and villages in Belgium and France, where much of Ihe destruction had been wilfully carried out by enemy forces, but no definite estimate of the result of the financial proposals of the treaty could in his opinion he made at present. It was necessary to wait and see. Meanwhile the. only safe course for New Zealand to pursue from a financial standpoint was not to count upon anything coming to her at all under tuis'hradiug. Indeed, he thought that all other parts of the British Empire, as well a.-:, our allies, except in the case of restoration work in France ami Belgian, were in a similar position in this respect.