Germany Deprived of her Booty

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 April 1915, Page 3

Germany Deprived of her Booty

The German Government has made a number of laws, ordinances, and proclamations for the administration of the Belgian territory which is now occupied by a part of the German Army. We have received from Mr Nijhoff, publisher, at The Hague, the official texts of these in German, French and Flemish, edited by Mr C. H. Huberich of the American Bar, and Mr A. NicolSpeyer. There is nothing Machiavellian in this legislation. It is, perhaps, not likely that Germany would forget that a day of reckoning with Belgium must come and would put in the form of public documents authority fot acts* contrary to the law of nations. Nevertheless Sonne'- of those ordinances and decrees are'worth attention, and one of them, which appears at the end of the book, will excite a little amusement in this' country.

The Societef Generale "tie Belgique is granted fb&-'lexchreiive privilege for one year of is sift ng bank-notes "pour eviter nue catastrophe economKine." The National Bank of Belgium is forbidden to do-Wr» v ßfehincl this interdict lies the cause of much German petnTance. Jt is stated'that this bank* transferred, the whole <6f gold' sresenirSfs and a> large St'rtte l bonds' to the Bank of England in August, and-that some members of the board of the National Bank of Belgium were sent, ''with the consent- of the German Government," to endeavo'ilr to bring back some of the "bonds." *This missi.on and a second with the same object met with failure—posSiblv with tho consent of the late Belgian Government. Thus Germany, cheated of her booty, has had to lo6k for something illegal in the act of the National Bank of Belgium. and has resolved to subject in to indignity. It is saiO that tho basis of a "fiduciary circulaton" of about 1,600,000,000f. has been carried off to the dangef of "the vital interests of the Belgian people." The casuistry of the statement is apparent. The return of bonds would not restore the basis of a fiduciary circulation, for the bonds are a part of that circulation. The basis was the' gold and. no doubt, that is what the Belgian delegates were instructed under duress to claim.