The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1905. INDEMNITIES OF WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11644, 23 August 1905, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1905. INDEMNITIES OF WAR.

In view of the fact that the question of an indemnity is likely to be the great stumbling-block to peace between Japan and Eussia, some particulars about indemnities previously paid will be • of ' general interest. In principle war indemnities may be regarded as "the costs of the action"; in practice they are apt to become confounded with the object of the quarrel. This was emphatically so in the case of the ransom extorted vfrom Rome by the Gauls after the Battle of the Allia in 390 B.C. When Brennus flung his sword and shield into the scales and cried "Vao victis," he affirmed a principle which is probably as ancient as human nature, and which has been fairly steadily maintained ever since. The amount of a war indemnity often depends quite as much upon the • anxiety of the vanquished to escape further humiliation as upon the victor's precise bill of expenses. On the other, hand, the sum is frequently reduced through- the sheer and manifest inability of the crushed combatant to pay the price of his own overthrpw". ' Indeed, . it is almost impossible to find an example in which some disturbing factor does not interfere with the precise operation of the general law. Napoleon, for instance, cost Great Britain alone the greater part of .£831,000,000 before he was suppressed at Waterloo ; but under the Treaty of Paris, 1815, Prance paid only .£28,000,000 to England, Prussia, and Eussia together. In the impoverished condition of Louis XVIII.'s dominions, however, it was thought advisable, to spread even this comparatively modest reimbursement over a period of five years, and it was • divided into 15 ' instalments of .£1,840,000 each, one of which fell due every four months. Coming to more recent 1 times, we find in 1871 what -is- always regarded as the supreme example, of a war indemnity. Under the Treaty of, Frank-

fort, 1871, Franc.fi paid a ransom oi ,£200,000,000. In demanding this colossal sum Bismarck had in his mind two distinct intentions. They were to replenish Germany's empty war chest, and, by crippling her antagonist financially, to prevent her from reviving to a condition in which she could have renewed hostilities before time had soothed her wounded pride and assuaged the desire for "la revanche." That the latter purpose - might more completely be fulfilled, payment in cash, and over a very short period, was imposed. The first instalment was .£20,000,000, and it was. provided by the stipulations of the treaty that it should be handed over one month after the French Government had obtained possession of Paris from the Commune. A further .£40,000,000 was to be liquidated be-, fore the end of the year, ,£20,000,000 more on May 1, 1872, and the balance of .£120,000,000 on May 2, 1874. Moreover, interest at the rate of 5 per cent had to be paid until the money had actually changed hands. The manner in which France discharged this enormous debt ie one of the most remarkable displays of the latent wealth of a nation to be found in history. To the astonishment of the whole world, the entire .£200,000,000 was placed at the disposal of the conqueror six months before the expiry of the prescribed term. Another large indemnity of recent times was that exacted by Eussia from Turkey in 1878, after the Czar's armies had fought their way to the gates of Constantinople. The terms agreed to at San Stefano underwent considerable modification at the subsequent International Congress, but under the Treaty at - Berlin, Turkey undertook to pay ,£32,000,000. It was stipulated, however, that the Ottoman Government, never a very prompt settler of accounts, should be allowed a long period of years in which to find the money. Some of it is still owing. Japan laas a lax-ececLerrb of lioar own in. -tliis xna-tteir, an indemnity having formed an important feature in the fruits of her triumph over China in 1895. The amount demanded was considerably increased after the intervention of Eussia, Germany, and France had deprived the victorious islanders of the Liao-tung Peninsula and the fortress of Port Arthur. Under the eventual Treaty of Shimonoseki, China paid 200,000,000 taels. This would be equivalent to about .£26,000,000 in English currency. Turkey was very anxious to obtain a substantial indemnity from Greece in 1897, but a financial commission appointed by the Powers reported that the defeated belligerent could not afford to satisfy the Ottoman demand, and ,£4,000,000 was' in the end fixed upon as the outside limit

of the pecuniary compensation in this case. At the conclusion of. hostilities between the United States and Spain was seen the unusual spectacle of the victor paying an indemnity as a kind of cash change in return for territorial concessions that seemed rather more than the circum-, stances of the case required.