GERMANY'S TASK

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15035, 5 September 1922, Page 3

GERMANY'S TASK

LORD CHANCELLOR'S HOPE* FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES, Lord Birkenhead was the guest of the Australian and New Zealand Luncheon Club at the Hotel Cecil, London. Sir Joseph Cook (High Commissioner for Australia) presided. The Lord Chancellor referred specially to the financial position of Germany, but owing to the distance at which the Press table was placed he was imperfectly heard. Referring first to the link which existed between the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Empire oversea, the Lord Chancellor said he did not claim more for his colleagues and himself who sat upon that tribunal than '.hat they lavished upon those duties every faculty they possessed. If they at any point failed in the multifarious duties imposed upon them from every (part of the Empire, at least the failure was not due to any lack of endeavour. He hoped very much that that great bond of Empire might long he maintained; but the decision was not for them — it was for the Dominions. As long as the Dominions honoured them by thinking that they constituted a Court which was worthy of the Empire, so long should they afford for the discharge of those duties the most learned Judges they possessed. If. however, a moment should come when another view prevailed, and it was thought that these matters might be dealt with in their final stage in the Dominions themselves, they should acquiesce readily, but with the feeling that an interesting and valuable page in the history of the Empire had been closed for ever.

Proceeding to discuss the European position, the Lord Chancellor said that as they looked round the world today, it must be a subject of melancholy reflection that Europe was hardly even now beginning to approach the path of prosperity. The Government were much criticised for the policy which stood for sending representatives of the Empire to Genoa. He found it difficult to appre : ciate the attitude of those who, whether a particular conference met with success or met with failure, did not realise that there was n 6 hope except in the discussions, and continued discussions, -of all those men in Europe who at this moment were charged with responsibility, * and upon whom, for good or bad, the burden was laid of taking the steps to effect any salvage possible. He was glad, indeed, to see to-day that some of those journals which most bitterly assailed the whole Genoa policy, the whole attempt to discover whether by Council, whether by assembling together all the nations of Europe, some amelioration, if not complete amelioration, could be brought wthin the range of human endeavour, were inculcating a course, of conduct which supplied the motive of the Conference that met at Genoa. The European Problem.

"What was the problem which it was attempted to solve? . It was to pluck from that Europe which existed to-day the maximum' portion which could be made in the near future contributory to the restoration of prosperity in Europe as a whole. Statesmanship in every country in the world —and he did not, care.whether Ihey were countries that fought on the side of the Allies or countries that fought against, the Allies—would be judged according as it had made a worthy and adequate contribution to that task. If they were to restore and make capable of contribution the nations of Europe, they must begin to look at what he might call the psychological side of the situation from a different angle and through different spectacles. Their task, in other, words, was no longer that of moralists; it was that, purely and simply, of economists and business men. They might leave to the censure, of the world those nations upon which would always be placed the guilt of the crime which had very nearly destroyed civilisation;, but having done so, and having won, as they had won, a victory which must be pronounced the greatest victory which had ever been won by British' arms, their next duty was to see that they did not hand down to their posterity a chaplet of withered laurels. What posterity would require, as they themselves required, was a world in which they could live and in which they could afford to their children a means of decent subsistence. Barren indeed would be the victory and valueless the laurels if by lack of sympathy, understanding, and initiative they who won the war failed to take the necessary steps to effect such a reconstruction of Europe as would make trade possible to a Europe that would perish unless trade was restored. It did not become him, who could not. claim to possess special know-' ledge, to speak with authority of the present situation in Germany, but of this he was -quite certain, that they would never fully restore prosperity to this country, until in one way or another it had become possible for Germany to make a contribution which that very remarkable, instructed, and sophisticated people could make to the peoples and commerce of Europe. Whatever other qualities the Germans possessed it had never been disputed that they possessed the qualities of business organisation, industry, and discipline. He affirmed plainly his own view that Germany would not be able to play that part, which was as indispensable to Great Britain as it was indispensable to herself, in the existing financiaj situation of that country. He had never associated himself with the view of those who boldly staled that the depreciation of the mark was brought about as the result of calculated German sublety. It might be the result, and he had no doubt it was the result, of a financial policy which was unsound, but he was one of those who always noticed the extraordinary difficulties amid which Germany since the. Armistice, in the bitter years of defeat and disillusionment and suffering, had attempted to readjust her affairs, and he thought we should commit a deep error if we failed to realise the extraordinary perplexities which had beset the task of the German Government in the last few years. At any rale, as far as he was concerned, he hoped it might he possible among those who were Allies in. the late struggle, and upon whom at this moment rnu.-.t fall the principal responsibility for the steps that were to be taken in the near future, ■ to arrive at a solution which would make it possible, as was right, that Germany should continue to pay a large punitive contribution without placing her in a situation in which it would ultimately be impossible for her 'o pay anything. Emigration and Unemployment. Turning to Imperial affairs the Lord i.l'.ancellor said I.he chairman had that !;i> returned from signing a document i| ;ho Colonial Office which, might per_ i.;p« one day b e righlty accounted his-i-rical. Sir Joseph. Cook had signed document under which to the ex-;-,Tit annually of three million pounds, 'h e Government of this country had

undertaken half the burden of all the emigration charges and costs of approved emigrants sent out to the Dominions. That was a remarkable circumstance for this reason—that for the first time, as the result of organised endeavour, it had been plainly realised that a proportion' at least of their difficulties might be solved by the process of correlating the industrial and unemployment problem over the Empire as a whole. To him it seemed to mark a most remarkable step forward. In the distressing circumstances that followed from the war there had been a degree of unemployment among the people rf these islands which had become almost chronic.

At the same time they had in the Dominions illimitable areas and almost Immeasurable prospects. If the Dominions were reinforced by a population of first-class emigrants there were fields of legitimate employment that could afford to the emigrants the means of a prosperous and happy life, which would add to the prosperity o? the Dominions themselves, and would breed in those Dominions a population of stalwart sons who would inherit the traditions of Imperial service which they themselves possessed. Great as the Empire's past had been, it would be as nothing to its future If the wisdom of statesmen in all parts of the Empire was equal to the gigantic tasks which awaited them.