GREAT MISTAKES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 28 October 1932, Page 3

GREAT MISTAKES

WAR DEBT BLUNDER GRIM REMINDER OF FACTS WHICH CANNOT BE EVADED. WORLD SHOULD NOT FORGET. Herie is an old theme in a new form, and until the war debts load is lifted from the backs and minds of mankind it must be emphasised from tiine to time. It brihgs us all back to essentials. The story is told of a glib speaker who said, "Having faced the facts shall we pass on?"... Shall we? "The greatest mistake ever made by a nationa was made when %e United States refused. to cancel War Debts. "There are two quite different considerations about these debts which seem to us lentirely conclusiveTaken together jthey form an argument based fairly and squarely on grounds of Equity as well as of Self-Interest." , — My Magazine. | "Let us take first what should al- ' ways come first, Equity," adds the . writer in My Magazine in plain lan- ; guage. i "We cannot too clearly bear in j mind that war is fought with Life ! and War Goods. Life means in this : connection courage, fortitude, endur- ! ance, and generalship; without these nothing else avails in war as in peace. The soldier, however, must be supplied with materials, and these in modern war include products furnished by every industrry. "Modern armaments are furnished by the iron and steel trades, the engineer, the shipbuilder, the chsmical trades, the cotton and woollen trades, the leather and hardware trades, the optical trade, the brass trade, and nearly every other manufacturing industry. Not only so, but all these must be supported by the miner, the railway, the mercantile marine, and road transport. I "When a nation goes to war all these essential trades must be turned from ; the arts of peace to the arts of war. Every trade becomes a war trade. The soldier has not only to be armed, but fed and clothed an^ moved, together with every animal he needs. If One Suffers All LoSe. j "Now let us think how this terrible feeding of war by trades affects various nations fighting in company. We call them Allies. For the purposes of the war they become mutual helpers, If one of them suffers loss they all lose. If one of them gains a victory the gain is common. They are comrades in a common cause. "When several nations go to war as Alii'es they are sure to be unequally wealthy, and of unequal size. We have only to think of the British Empire, the United States, France, Italy, and Belgium allied together to realise that they brought very different contributions to the ;common task. Ame1 rica and ourselves were not only very : rich countri'es, but possessed enori mous iron and steel and engineering industries. i "We owned half the merchant ships ' of the world, and had also the best J coal in the world near the sea. France, ! on the other hand, had comparatively ! little coal and few ships. "When these nations agreed to band together in a common cause it is obi vious that if 'each had had no more : than its own resources to fight with i its soldiers would have been hard put ' to it. What could France have done . without British coal and British i ships ? What could Italy and Belgium have done if not liberally supplied by ; their rich Allies? What Are War Debts in Reality? ' ...."Now enter the War Debts. What were they? They merely consisted of the supplies in aid which were passed' from the Rich Allies to the Poor ! Allies. That is to say, the two rich Allies sent war goods to their poorer . friends in order to enable them to fight. | "Suppose the rich Allies had not sent these war supplies to their poor frends. In that case France and Italy ; would have been overrun by the, by the enemy, and the rich'i Allies would been overwh'elmed in the misfortunes of their poor friends. The Germans would have quickly conquered France, and London would have been presented with the staggering problem of a German coast across the English Channel, from which emerging submarines would have made it very difficult to feed London. "How inequitable and • ridiculous it was, therefore, for the rich Allies to write down in their books the value of the war goods they sent to the poor Allies, and after the war to demand repayment with interest! The supplies were simply a form of mutual aid in the common cause. "When a British soldier consumed Amarican munitions he served America as he served his own country. Is it not obvious that while the Americans were preparing an army which only fought in the concluding phase of the war the munitions they lent to the Allies were really saving the ■ lives of American soldiers ? So far from War Debts representing a sacrifice by those who lent them, the sacrifice was on the other sid'e. It was those who supplied Life who made the real sacrifice, not those who supplied Goods. We supplied both. "Every British citizen, therefore, is glad to think that British policy after the war pursued the line of Equity and declared for the cancellation of War Debts. 'Just as War Debts consist of goods so their repayment can only be made in goods, including gold, which is a commodity, just as much' as ironj or cotton. When the War Debts were solemnly defined in certain enormous figures the debtors had to pay great iannUal ,'instalments of caprtyal and

interest and to pay them in goods or gold. D"But when a country is compelled to export goods in peace without getting anything in exchange there is a very serious disturbance of trade (that does not happen in war, because war goods are immediately destroyed by the war itself). ' A great bulk of goods has to be made and exported year by year without any return traffic. This means that the debtor nations are compelled to be fierce competitors of the very nations they are supposed to repay. The nations tnreatened with this fierce competition raised their tariffs to keep' out the competitive trade! So we get the funny picture, funnier than anything in Alice in Wonderland, of America demanding huge payments from Europe even while she is shutting out payment in the only possible way. ■ "This refusal of payment in goods led to enormous quantities of gold being shipped from Europe to America, and that accumulation of gold in America caused frantic speculation, leading to a credit panic, a disastrous fall in prices, and consequent world distress. Everywhere the normal channels of trade have been blocked and the world's producers reduced to 1 a condition of despair. "This War Debts folly has been matched by the Keparations folly. Germany was to pay heavy damages, chiefly to France. France also, like America, piled up gold because she largely refused goods, and this factor combined with' War Debts in driving the whole world into Slough of Despind. j World Opinion Becoming Solid. j "Such is the case against War Debts and R'eparations on the joint grounds ! of Equity and Self-Interest. The j world's trade cannot recover while it is oppressed by these absurd finan1 cial commitments. But still the , United States and France have been i maintaing an attitude of obduracy, ■ both nations sharing the distress they ! have caused, yet refusing to open their eyes to the only remedy. 1 "It is not a mere holiday from War Debts or Reparations that is required: I it is a complete removal of t'he evil. ! The world as a whol'e has suffered a j loss fully ten times ast great as the j sums dcmanded. "World opinion is becoming solid on the subject, and in the long run America and France must bow to the storm. Their slowness in doing so is one of the most astonishing examples the world has seen of the working of the human mind."