The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1918. WHY NOT AN INDEMNITY?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 430, 29 November 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1918. WHY NOT AN INDEMNITY?

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

The cost of the war to the Empire has not yet been correctly tabulated, out when the figures are available we shall no doubt be staggered by our war bill. And when to the actual expenditure we add the estimated indirect loss we have suffered by the dislocation of our industries and the retrogression of our farming lands the total will be amazingly huge. Is there any reason why we should not extract from the people whose blind desire for plunder and world-domination involved us in the war an indemnity sufficient to recoup us ? The loss of the flower of the manhood of the Empire they can never repay us, but common justice demands that they shall make good to us the material losses we have sustained.

Germany has already made the objection that the war lias involved her in debts so heavy that it would be impossible for tier to find the money for an indemnity : but that plea may !>-• al once brushed aside as having no hearing upon the point at is an-. Throughout the war period Germany has loudly proclainud thru her financial policy was self reliant, inasmuch as h.i lu.-m.; were entirely raised from lu-r own people. This is undoubtedly so and for the excellent lea.-on ilia'

outsiders were not inclined to lend her money, which is a most fortunate thing for lis, because, though we might be diffident about pressing..-our claims it' by so doing we caused loss In the outside bond-holder, w<- can hardly have am ipialins in tln iMattef when the German bondholder is ill qUc-lion. We have no objection to the German nation repaying to individual Germans what they have lentprovided always they liist settle our just claim .

Gerinany has always claimed to have shown Kurope tlie wr, lo do things, and certainh in this matter ot a war indemnity she lias given Us a lead, which we shall be foolish indeeil if we do not follow. In |s?o she claimed from France a hug'- mih,, coveiiiie

not only what the war had co t

her, but a very handsome solatium besides. We .shall not expect her to pay in gold (as France did and we shall give her sufficient time by extending the paymeii « over a number of years. It will be as useless for G< rmatiy to plead she has no money as it would be a misdemeanant fined at a police court to advance the same excuse. She has assets of the most valuable kind, and v.-. shall be quite content to take them either right out or in pledge. Germany possesses the riches; coal and ironfields in Europe; and lias also deposits ot potash of great extent and value. These, or a heavy royalty upon them a - they are mined, would be a bihelp towards wiping off what she owes us. To this could be added a heavy export tax upon all articles she manufactures, and a heavy import tax upon the raw materials that come in. It ma) be urged that this would mean low wages and not too high a standard of things for German workmen, but need that concert; us so greatly ? It is certain that if we and not the Germans have to pay the cost of the war the burden of our taxation will, for many years to come, keep down the standard of wages and living for our own people. When heavy payments have to be made, economy of expenditure is a great help. Germany has proved to be quite unfat to have either an army or a navy. For the last sixty years she has used these as instruments of agression, and th? Allies will scarcely be so toolish as to give her auother chance of disturbing the peace of the world. This will save her perhaps a hundred millions annually, which will help her to get out of debt to us. To be sure she will have to pay the expenses of an Allied army of occupation for a long time to come, but there will still be a big saving to her.

We now come to the most valuable asset of all the labour of her people. It is usually con sidered that men will not use their best exertions when they are what is commonly called "working off a dead horse," but there are means by which we could induce forced German labour to be very useful to us. They showed us what these means were when they forcibly deported the civilian population of Belgium and Northern France to do forced labour in Germany. They gave us a free education in these matters when, under the whip, they compelled the prisoners of war that had fallen into their hauds to work like galley-slaves. By all means let us give them a taste of their own medicine.

What would Germany have done had she won this war ? We may gather the information plainly enough from the disclosures of Mr Henry Morgenthen, United States Commissioner to* Turkey before America joined in the war. He learned, upon the highest German authority that when Germany bad beaten England and and France she intended to attack America upon the grounds that she had supplied the Allies witli munitions It was intended to extort from the States an indemnity of twenty thousand million Domuls, which would make Germany the richest country on eaith and enable the Kaiser to carry out his life-long dream of being the central figure ot a great moving picture, directing and controlling the destiny of the • wo; Id. This surely is precedent | eno'.h'h for us