LATEST CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1923, Page 3

LATEST CABLE NEWS

MR LLOYD GEORGE.

THE GERMAN NOIL. AI*STItALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. (Received this day at S a. in.) The following and all of Mr Lloyd George’s articles, are copyright by United Press in America and all countries, copyright in Australasia by the Australian Press. Copyright, in Britain by the Daily Chronicle. (Reproduction in full or part prohibited). LONDON, dune 10. Mr Lloyd George writes Another Note. Psychologically it is a decided advance on the first Note. It is crisp ami condensed, ami does not indulge in the irritating process of an argument. You should never attempL to argue with an angry man who was brandishing a bludgeon. The second Note avoids thU provocation. It also suggesta number of substantial guarantee- lor payment til interest *n loan- to be iwi-ed for reparation purposes. Liu ihi- array of securities standing alone will not entice the In* vestor to risk hi- money in a German reparation loan. He will look at Germane as a whole, not in purls. Ihe investor will want to know what is likely In happen to the- rutini ry during the coining years. to it- industry, finance polities and people. A railway which collects its rates and fares in corrupt currency is no u-c as a security for any loan. Customs revenue collected in fugitive coin i- equally worthless. The only reliable ba-i -lor a loan is a stable Germany. You cannot have a stable Germany until you settle the reparation-, hence ll'.e propositions that really mutter in the German Not© are those which deal with the fixation (,f the amount Germany shall pay. The Note suggest.- further discussions should he by ronierence rattier than the exchange of notes. How e;in any unprejudiced person reins© to recognise the essential reasonableness ol (Ins. It is common ground t lint the annuities imposed on Germany in May 1921. demand modifications. Even it M. Poincare proceed- on that assumption there is iherefore the most important and highlv difficult figure to be ascertained of what annuity can Germany pay. I- it unreasonable that this question should be rel"rred to a tribunal that will give ii calm and iudgicial consideration. It this were a business or trade dispute the proposal would lie regarded as eminently sensible and fair and the party rejecting it would be condemned by public opinion. Al the dale of writing this aniele the French Government have not ollicially expressed their view- on tin- German Note, but one may safely

as-ume, from past exui'rioiioos, that tlie Parisian journali-t - consulted the (,)uai D’Orsay before writing any critical articles. In I heir criticisms they declared that France will not discuss tlie German proposals until the latter withdrew the passive resistance in the Ruhr and if this import- acquiescence Ii v Germany m the oeenpa I ion and exploitation of the Ruhr until the reparations are hilly paid, then the position t- hopeless. I can hardly believe i Hut t lie French Government means to insi-t upon thi-. in -pite ol “I.e Temps” article hearing that interpretation. They may only a-k that while the terms are being th-ctis-ed that armistice he concluded, the first condition whereof -hall be that ail obstacle's in the wav of -applying France. Belgium and Italy with reparation coin and 1-oke shell be wj: hdrawn. An nr-l.ii-lice oil -I,'cli term- ought not In he difficult to arrange, especially if the Franco-Bel gin n a inherit ies wit In Ira w their bail on the export ol the Huh> products to unoccupied Germany. I tt-Iv-s the term- lie mutually accommodating I surmise that the German Government will have an insurmountable difficulty in persuading the stubborn; miner- and vadw aylucn to assist, m furnishing the products denied to ran own fellow countrymen. It is too readily taken for granted that thb Ruhr workmen will obey Berlin which decrees that the Wilhemsl rassa no longer commtinds the respect ol prewar day-. .-bill a conference should experience no ,1 illicit]ty in fixing stipulaiions that would make it p»--ib!.' for Frame to enter a conference on reparations without the suspicion attached to the Ministers who lowered the national flag. What are the objections to a fixation of annuities and guarantees for payment put inrwnrd in German notes. Ii is not tlie German method but Die American method adopted by the German Government —a coni 'retire uiili ait impartial tribunal. Ii the conference fails, i know oi no othet way except a result to blind lone, h i- objected that- as the reparation commission wits provided lor the putnose, to create another tribunal would 1,0 to supersede the treaty. There arc two answers to the ciiinention ; firstly. :> commission as at present constituted is not the body to which GVrmaity a greed to refer such quest iolts. It is nut the body Britain and other Allies contemplated. The withdrawal ol America completely changed it- ehatacter. No man in his senses can l>*o!iml the cotiiniis-iiai in its mutilated form is either impartial in composition or judicial in methods. The American proposal is very moderate. It implies the restoration of the Treaty by reintroducing America to the body that

s-ttl.-d reparai inti'. If France objects tn tlie appoint menl of a separate body, vvliv should not the Allies agree that their representatives on a commission wild an American nominee added, would be i lie tribunal. Whatever Die Kivurli view in regard to the suggested annuities, guarantees or an impartial | eoiii mission. it is conceivable they should l-cicet the conlVretiee. It is i lie surest road to reparations. Ii is too early yet lo estimate the loss through tin- explosion ai Cannes Conference, but all idea of discussion since has been loftilv and petnlalitlv dismissed as ail exhibition of pernicious weakness. What has been substituted for it for twelve months was a rather ridieulons display of feather rattling about a farmyard to inspire terror, and threatening speeches full of ominous hints of impending action. Every speech cost Franco milliards ill postponed reparations. French opinion naturally insisted on action, hence this rash invasion. At Cannes, a two years moratorium would have been accepted a> a settlement. Already eighteen months of this period would have now elapsed and Gorman finances would have been tinder strict Allied supervision. The mark would have boon stabilised and loans negotiated which would have substantially lightened the

Allies burden'. Germany is not in a position to pay now what she was aide to offer then. These eighteen months have been devoted to assiduously reducing Germany’s capacity to pay debts.

At Cannes, the mark stood at ~0 and it now stands at BA:?.000. Germany will require ail extended moratorium to recover from the clumsy mishandling of the past eighteen mouths and it will take the debtor a long time to recover from the bruises and loss of Mood. What an achievement in scientific debt collecting. If the reparations shall ever be naiil, the Allies must retrace their steps anil get back to a conference, so for everybody’s sake stop strutting, anil get back to business.