The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1916. THE QUESTION OF INDEMNITY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 28, 29 December 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1916. THE QUESTION OF INDEMNITY.

For long enough the Teutonic peoples have been urged to greater effort and greater sacrifice by their' criminal rulers under the delusion that when the end came great' indemnities would bo levied on tbo Allied countries opposing tho ambitions of Germany while it was, of course, freely believed by their own people that Germany would retain possession of Northern France and Belgium. The bogus peace proposals which Germany with characteristic love of melodramatic effect put forth just on the eve of Christmas, significantly drop all this pretence, and tho indications are therefore that Germany is much nearer exhaustion and bankruptcy than those outside had dared to lie-’

lieve. The Auckland Star, in this connection, discusses the whole question of indemnities, and in so doing expresses the view that those who maintain the impossibility of extorting indemnities from tho Central Powers might well be advised to use a little imagination, and if they are incapable of conceiving for themselves methods which could be so applied as to secure the cud in view, they may ho referred to the proposals which loading Germans have put forwarn for the extortion of indemnities from France while they still believed that Victory was within their grasp. The Star goes on to say; “One of the! schemes put forward by the Pan-Gei-m:\ns and tbe beads of six great industries was the vesting of all railway rights and mining rights in Northern Fance in tho German Govcin-j men I;, and the expropriation of all French landowners and inannlaetnrers there. The whole of Belgium .Northern France was, in iact, to he

worked as a German State preserved for the benefit of the German people, at least till the required amount ot tribute bad been exacted. Now here is a scheme which, assuming the complete triumph of German aims, could certainly be applied to tho territories occupied by the enemy -u such a wav as to extort indemnities

effectually for the benefit of the conquerors. Is there, any reason why such a plan as this should not be applied to Germany and Austria by the Allies when once the strength of Prussian militarism is broken? Now it is very interesting to find that the Daily Chronicle, once so uniformly pacifist, has recently published, an article advocating just such a] scheme as the Germans themselves proposed for the purpose of extracting tribute from the conquered foe. Briefly it amounts to this, that the Allies must, become, instead of the German State, the universal mortgagees, with] a lien on all German property, pub-] lie and private, real and personal. Of tour,so all German investments such!

as American- stocks could lie sold fertile benefit of the Allies; but as to] land, houses, railways and industries,! as there could he no cash purchasers,' ‘the proper plan will ho for the Allies to become mortgagees in possess- 1 ion.’ ” The Star further holds that on the purely practical side the scheme seems to present few difficulties. The! German industries could be carried on by receivers, for the benefit of the Allies, as is done for debenture ladders in the case of insolvent joint stock companies; and, of course, th» German workers would he secured by making their wages a first charge on the output of the industries. The German wage-earner would hot suffer seriously; and we need not waste much sympathy over the capitalists of tho “six great industries” who have been so loudly advocating the utter destruction of French and Belgian industries to secure their own gams, “For them,” says tho “Daily Chroni-. cle.” writer, “there will be no divi--dends, no interest on debentures, no] anything, as long as any portion of the indemnity remains outstanding. All the unearned increment which they at present derive from these various businesses will go to the mortgagees in possession until such time as the labour of the German people has liquidated the debt which their Government has incurred toward tho victims of its wanton aggression.”