GERMANY'S HOPE

Levin Daily Chronicle, 3 November 1917, Page 1

GERMANY'S HOPE

INDEMNITY FROM AMERICA.

One of the popular war-time occupations of conservative and PanGerman newspapers throughout the German Empire, as shown by advices received here, is to speculate on the size of the indemnity which Germany is expected to obtain from the Entente Allies and to impress upon their readers again and again why enormous indemnities are going to be an absolute necessity. The entry of the United States into the war has given impetus to such discussions, because that country is so obviously able to pay a pretty price (says the New York Tribune). The Leipsic Neueste Nachrichten is the latest paper to take the matter up. A recent article in that paper by Professor Krueckmann, of Muenster, is the more significant since the journal is considered the personal organ of the German Crown Prince, and frequently publishes things directly inspired by him. Professor Krueckmann, in the course of two columns and a half, presents a number of arguments why Germany must have an indemnity. The primary reason, he argues, is that one of England's first acts after the war probably will be to construct the famous tunnel between Dover and Calais, which, says the writer, will make Germany's submarines valueless, and which will therefore place Germany at the mercy of England in the second war which is to follow the present struggle. England, says the writer, need not starve out Germany to win the war,

need not even win it decisively, but by coming out with a "draw" will have the upper hand for all time unless Germany can obtain an indemnity and thereby strengthen itself at the same time that it weakens England and America. His argument in support of this contention is that if the war costs both Germany and England 20,000,000,000 dollars, or even more, it will leave Germany badly crippled, while England, even though she has spent a like amount, will have behind her the wealth of America. "The German people," he continues, "appear even to-day not to realise that the length of the war and the huge earnings of America have created an entirely new situation. American capital to a large extent will become occupationless when peace is declared; will therefore jump at any possibility, will align itself with English capital in competition with us. "If we do not weaken our opponents by cutting a financial artery, then, after the completion of the Dover-Calais tunnel, we go, weakened, into a second war under enormously more unfavourable economic and military conditions on our side, and under vastly strengthened economic and military conditions on the enemy's side. Either the German people dies on the battle-field and has gone into this war for nothing, or it dies of self-consump-tion."