REPARATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1929, Page 6

REPARATIONS

GERMANY’S BURDEN. FOR FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS. .'United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). PARIS, June 7. The Experts Reparations report was signed this evening in the course of a brief ceremony, at the conclusion of which Mr Owen Young, American representative, congratulated his colleagues. The delegates then rapidly exchanged farewells returning to their homes forthwith. PARIS, June 8. The text of the reparations report is only eighteen thousand words, apart from the annexes. It is being published on Sunday. In the meantime, fresh details are available. It is anticipated that Britain will receive £29,900,000 out of each German average annual payment of approximately a hundred millions sterling. Tlie report will be forwarded to tlie Reparations Commission for submission to the Governments concerned. If tlie report is" adopted, Germany will have a specific financial burden to carry for fifty years. The creditor powers have fixed tho annual payments from Germany on Mr Owen Young’s plan, which virtually scraps the Dawes Plan. Theoretically the Young plan comes into force on April Ist, 1930, but actually the plan will begin to operate on September Ist, 1929. The experts agree that all of the complicated foreign controls imposed on Germany by the ,Dawes plan will disappear. Germany, instead, will freely undertake to pay an average annuity of £102,5G0,0P0 for thirtyseven years, followed by an annuity of eighty-five millions sterling for a further twenty-one years, covering the war debts only. The annuities will he divided unconditionally, ,or conditionally oil tlie latter being delayablc with the approval of a Committee that is to he appointed from the Directors cf the Internationa, Bank, the former furnishing a large capital sum, to which France attaches importance.

Germany’s liability for the costs of the army df occupation will cease on September Ist next, the suggested date from which the scheme should operate. This is regarded as meaning the evacuation of tlie Rhineland on .that date.

DOMINIONS’ SHARE UNALTERED

PARIS, June 7

The most important annexes to the Reparations report relate to tho preparation of the annuities. Britain obtains a variable annuity comprising, firstly, a year to year cover for tbc Balfour Note obligations, which payment varies according to Britain s payments to tlie United States. Secondly, there is a non-variable amount for tlie British Dominions, which will obtain the full revised Spa percentages. LONDON, June 8.

The “.Daily Telegraph's” correspondent in Paris states: “Britain's share of the reparations will he somewhat under the strict proportion which hitherto was in force, lmt there are compensating advantages. Britain’s share will no longer he a fixed proportion, lmt the amount varies year by year, according to our debt payments for which it provides a year-to-year cover. Besides this, there is a constant amount to meet the claim of the Dominions. Our share, in the enrlv years, will be on a somewhat higher basis than the present proportion, but in later years rather a lower rate df reparations in kind will he maintained for ten years, beginning with £3< ,500,000, and decreasing to fifteen millions. This limitation alone is worth a sacrifice from the British viewpoint. There has been no concealment in British quarters that allowance and sacrifices have been necessary, of-which Britain has made the largest share. The British delegation have accepted these more readily inasmuch tne\ ( : that Britain could only benefit from ] the settlement, while a failure would j lie a calamity. The International Bank will have a share capital of twenty millions sterling to ho subscribed by the Central. Hanks of the Powers represented on the Experts Committee, df which onequarter will be paid up immediately. 'lhe International Bank will act as a clearing bouse for the payments of the reparations and deliveries of raw matcrinis, besides safeguarding Germany s credit. The bank’s profits will be placed in a common fund, to the benefit, mainly, of the Oovern.nents eonconmd; hut twenty-five per cent, mlhe placed in reserve to assist Germany in [laying her last annuities.

FRANCE’S SHARE. LONDON. -Tuih* s - It is estimated tlint I' ranee v. i w i ceivo a total of CWffiMaUMX), empaled Witl. about Ll.non.nm.ooo, which was originally claimed by M. Poincare. AMERICAN VIEWS. WASHINGTON. June 8. The signing of the Experts’ Reparations’ report is hailed in United Slates administrative circles generally as a potent factor lending to stabilisation throughout Europe, will, 'consei,uent benefits to the United States. One official, liowever. in “barplv dissenting from tliis view, suggested that the proposed flotation in the United States of an issue of Herman bonds, as provided in the settlement, may react unfavourably on the credit conditions here and in the non-European conn-

tries. This official declared that such iin offering would probably causeAmerican investors to lend less money to Latin America and Canada, which, for many years, had been heavy borrowers in the United States credit ma rket. GERMAN PRESS OPINION. (Received this day at S a.m.) BERLIN, June 0. The press gives fffie Reparations Agreement a mixed reception. “Vonverts’’ describes it as a step forward, politically showing the will to destray Germany, no longer exists. “Eerlin ,Lageg!att” say the most! important aspect is not the evacuation of the Rhineland. That is bound to follow, but the evacuation of German Economic Life, which for a decade was occupied by creditors who believed they had the unlimited right to exploit Germany. “Vossisch Zeitung” says there will be a revision of the plan when the allied countries return to economic reason. It is absurd to think one nation will pay reparations to others for two generations. Nationalist organs describe the agreement as fatal to 'ormauy. and intend to oppose it in the Reichstag.