The Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1916. GERMAN FINANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11669, 8 April 1916, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1916. GERMAN FINANCE.

At tho beginning of the war finance presented no problem to the German juaker. It was the very essence of " simplicity. The payment of expenses was merely a matter of subtraction — " from the wealth of tho other nations. Tho Imperial Minister of Finance encouraged this view. The enemy would j>ay Germany's bill by means of indemnities, and, that being so, the vpflvemmont would issuo paper money, "float loans and adopt various temporary measures against tho day when ; iha. goods and gold of vanquished foes r began to flow in. A change has "come o'er the scene. Dr Helfferich, ' in- a recent statement, dwelt on the V possibility of but had to" admit that indemnity or no m- - the people of the Fatherland lyould have to pay " kolossal" taxes. . This has t come as an unpleasant jar to -even tho most fervid patriots, and in Germany to-day, well informed writers ' iay,- thero is much manoeuvring in wder to.plaoe the financial burden on cihe hack of "the other fellow. 1 " ' v- ! r,/ Naturally the Social Democrats have Sadvanced the theory that the individuals and firms that have benefited 1 - financially by the war must be made ;fco disgorge. There are difficulties in l.Sfche way, the chief of them being the :'limited powers of the Reichstag 'in ,j the matter of direct taxation. The c manufacturers and the war party are £ aging this to block the imposition ot Imperial tax on income and fortune, viand, strange as it may seem, they are chasing their opposition on tho "holy of the German States. £;lhis,' from people who have not hesitated. to tread "underfoot the autonomy Sof Belgium and other small States, has something of irony and something of in'it. The Government, it is .Xstated, will st hedge " on the question. will levy an Imperial tax, but the "will be permitted to from the increase in income or the sums necessary to adapt ,she factory after the war to the needs >Io£; peace," and the capitalist holding will be permitted to ded-uct from js&ny"increase in returns "the amount - the loss of income on other shares —on- which he has experienced a loss.'' «j?And the net result, according to one -Authority, will not bo sufficient to pay interest on the first year's war loans. V '' '

3Y:: A Prussian judge : has dropped' a V&omb in tho German money market by '/"advocating the confiscation of all foretimes over a million sterling. Tho and Socialist newspapers; with zest}- supported the judge,„ but Conservative organs—particularly ■ Vth&< Krnpp journals—described' it as a .monstrous theory." But, as a 'iieutral correspondent has pointed out, !»5t really is along the lines supported the junkers at the beginning. It ?is a matter of subtraction—not from .r-iihe wealth of ihe enemy as promised, plrat from the wealth of the wealthy >xn the Fatherland. " Good Germans, 'x:writes the correspondent referred to, -/' think to confiscate the millions—no - longer of the foreigner—but of their - own millionaires. It suggests a kind a of tinnnr.ial cannibalism—but it is ovoall the same."*