The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1918. MAKING GERMANY PAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1918. MAKING GERMANY PAY

Satisfactory evidence has been afforded in the courEO of the British election campaign that if the Coalition carries the day there will be no weak whittling down of the demands .to be made on Germany at the peace settlement. From the outset; Me. Lloyd George and his colleagues have taken up an uncompromising stand in regard to the punishment of German crimes and the compensation to bt exacted from Germany. Their later utterances indicate that .they are supported in this attitude by a strong and growing public sentiment. Some additional information on the subject is supplied by Mn. 'Winston Churchill in a speech reported today. A strong Allied Commission, he states, is inquiring' in every direction' regarding German assets which are capable of being distrained 'for the purpose of discharging the cost of the war. This is an exceedingly satisfactory announcement. Framed in accordance with justice, the demands to be made upon Germany will assume enormous proportions, but her resources are great, and it is not in doubt thatshe is capable of paying an indemnity which will cover "tho full cost of'the war, together with all the damage done on land and sea.". The words quoted were used a few days ago by Sir Eric Geddes, but as an indication of the indemnity that in 1 his personal opinion should be demanded. Mr. Churchill's statement implies that not Britain only but the Allies in general are determined to exact such an indemnity. It is plain enough that if they took any other course they would be not merely compounding but rewarding Germany's colossal crime. It would be a monstrous injustice if she were asked only to restore stolen property and pay for the damage she has done on land and_ sea. In that case, with her territory untouched by war except j in the way of unopposed occupation, she would be in many respects favourably placed in comparison with the nations which are saddled with a crushing burden of debt as a result of their expenditure in bringing her to terms. Nothing more than bare justice will be done if she is required not only to repair as far as possible the havoc she has wrought, but to pay the full cost of the_ war. In these proportions the indemnity will amount only to the compensation fairly due to the nations Germany so vilely wronged. It will simply make good their material losses suffered at her hands and incurred in' bringing her to justice. There is no question of exacting a looting indemnity .such as Germany exacted from' France in 1871.

Assuming that they have determined to exact an indemnity which will their losses and outlay, the Allies will he faced hy certain practical difficulties in collecting it, but none of these difficulties are insuperable. Even if Germany fell into a state as chaotic as that: of Russia, she has primary resources which are, quite equal to providing such an indemnity as is required. What total will be reached when all legitimate demands on Germany are brought together,, it is impossible as yet to say. A recent estimate stated the aggregate war .costs of the Allies at £25,000,000,000. This is a very large sum, but probably it represents only the military expenditure of the Allied nations, and does not include such items as compensation to the victims of German outrages and the heirs of those who are dead, for shipping destroyed, and for devastation and other forms of damage. Britain alone, it was reported last week, will demand a sum of eight thousand millions, 't'his will stop considerably short of covering her war expenditure and her losses by the destruction of merchant shipping and in other, ways. Other. Allied countries which have made a smaller outlay than Britain have suffered enormously greater damage. All things considered, it is likely that the total bill presented to Ger J many will materially exceed £25,'000,000,000. Though it will cripple her for many years to come she is able to pay even this enormous sum, and it is bare justice that she should do so. A useful statement of German icsources was given recently by "Politicus" in a series of articles in the Fortnightly Review. He uoints out

... that Germany owes her vast wealth very largely to the possession of very great and exceedingly valuable natural resources; that r.mongst the nations of Europe she is by far tho richest in coal, iron ore, and potash;, that she has a geographical configuration most favourable to tho dovelopment of agriculture and industry; . . . that her coal, iron ore, and potash alone are, at a very moderate valuation, worth 000; a sum -which is about fifteen'times as largo as what is usually called the national wealth of the United Kingdom., Another item worth menlioninir, though _ it is much smaller, is that of foreign securities. It was computed in 1913 that Germany had £1,000,000,000 invested abroad. Some of this capital was withdrawn before the war, but what remains is in a form that makes it readily available for the purposes of an indemnity. As Mr. Gfiurchiu, points out in his latest speech, Britain, in financing the. war, transferred to America against debt incurred in that country about a thousand mil-British-owned American peeuntics. Much of tho German capital invested abroad can bo transferred in much the same way towards The es-

sential problem involved in collecting an adequate indemnity from Germany, however, is that of tapping the.vast resources of which she is possessed in her home territories. Needless to say, cash payments will play a small part in the transaction, and it is impossible that it can be completed' in any form within a limited time. Germany will need years, perhaps many years, in which to nay in full. Generally speaking, the Allies cannot seek payment in manufactured goods, because the result would be to stifle their own industries and promote those of Germany. An important exception may be made in the case, of shipping. No doubt the Allies will derive advantage from compelling Germany to replace in kind the tonnage destroyed by submarine:. It is obvious also that the exactions must be so arranged as not to cripple German industry and stifle production. These 'limits being set, however, arrival at a practicable method of collecting the indemnity should be largely a matter of detail adjustment. The broad requirements are that, apart from shipping and foreign investments, the indemnity should be collected as far as possible in the raw, materials with which Germany is so amply endowed. One question that may be raised is that of setting Germany's confiscated colonies against .indemnity claims. Assuming that it is recognised, however, this claim, if it is equitably assessed, will hardly bulk large. It is estimated that Germany's late colonies cost her taxpayers in direct outlay something between 100 and 160 millions sterling. Much of this amount, however, was thrown away, or worse than thrown away'i Germany spent about thirty millions in her colonies in "exceptional military expenditure," that is to say, in the wholesale murder of negroes and people of other primitive races. At the outbreak of war she was conducting her colonial empire as a losing concern, sustaining it by Imperial subventions totalling over five millions per annum.