The Hokitika Guradian TUESDAY, JULY 18th, 1922. GERMAN REPARATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian TUESDAY, JULY 18th, 1922. GERMAN REPARATIONS.

u fjU iHL/x Tub q ilost ion of the payment of German Reparations is attain in the melting pot, and it appears that th<* recent drop in the value of the mark is one of the methods of the financiers of that country to assist in the deferring of the due ayments.' Under the agreement of May oth.. 10*21. Germany’s reparation payments, for the year 19*22 were to be £100,000.000 in currency with the addition of 26 per rent, on the value of her exports, probably in all about £150,000,000. On January ‘2Bth., 1922, the German Government informed the Reparations Commission that they were unable to meet these liabilities and could not even pay the first instalment of £25,000,01X1 which 101 l due in January. On March 21st., 1922, the Reparation Commission addressed a letter to the German Chancellor, proposinK a revised scale of payments for the present year. According to this revised scale Germany was to pay the value of £72,500,000, in kind, and £36,000,000 in currency, including payments already made. The balance of the £36,000,000 was to he paid in the following instalments: On March 15th. £900,000; on the 15th of May. June, July, August, September, i and October respectively £2,500,000; and oil November 15th. and December 15th. respectively £3,000,000. The difference between the sums due and those actually paid in 1921-1922 was to remain with interest at 5 per cent., as an obligation which Germany would Ik 1 required to meet as soon, as the Repara- , tion Commission considered her capable of doing so. The Reparation Commission only made these concessions, on certain conditions. The 'Gorman Government, the Commission said, must make a far more profound reform of t(io finance of the Empire than had

been attempted hitherto. They must immediately draw up a scheme for increasing the taxes which shall provide in 1922-23 an addition to the revenue 'estimated in the Budget of at least £11.000.000. The Commissiotn would allow the German Government to choose the sources from which the new receipts were to he obtained, hut it reserved power to exercise contio! eve" t“o finance of the Gorman Government in order to see that the prescribed measures were carried out. The Commission expressed the opinion that from 1922 onward the German Budget should coyer an important part of the Reparation payments (as now reduced') the other part being covered by a contribution of capital raised cither by way of loan or |,y a direct levy. The German Government protested that the demand for additional taxation was an entirely iiiApossible demand and that the proposed control of Germany's finances Wa s incompatible with German sovereignty. Ultimately the German Government accepted the terms of the Commission, hut made “early and reasonable assistance in the wav of a foreign loan,” a condition of all proposals fol 1 reforming the Budget and in other ways meeting the demands of the Commission. An International Bankers’ Commission hiet hist month and decided that the time was inopportune for the issue of ttn international loan to Germany, Mid it could not usefully continue its deliberations. Since that time there has been an uni>rm*<U‘ntixl slump in the mark exchange, and a financial crisis in Germany, whose Government is now seeking a moratorium.