Snowden Will Object

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 733, 5 August 1929, Page 9

Snowden Will Object

YOUNG REPARATION PLAN Britain the Only Loser MOMENTOUS MEETING AT THE HAGUE (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) TIIE HAGUE, Sunday. DELEGATES from various nations are now assembling at The Hague to take part in the momentous Reparation Conference, which is to be opened on Tuesday in Parliament Buildings. Host of the delegates are to stay at the seaside resort, Seheveningen, in the vicinity of the city.

Thirteen countries are to be represented. The delegates and their staffs will number several hundreds. The proceedings inevitably will be protracted. It can hardly be expected that they will be concluded before the meetings of the Council of the League of Nations begin at Geneva on August 29. It is understood that Mr. Philip Snowden, British Chancellor of the j Exchequer, will offer firm resistance j t o the proposal that a reduction should be made in Germany’s payments at the sole expense of Britain. She would : certainly lose at least £2,500,000 a! year over a period of 37 years if the | Young plan were adopted in its ! entirety. Moreover, the German payments under the plan are divided into two | categories, of which the payment of | £33,000,000 is unconditional and the j remainder, in certain circumstances, I can be postponed. According to the plan the British share is to come from the postponable portion of Germany’s j payments. In other words, France and Italy, in addition to having their

shares increased at the expense of Britain, are to be given priority on the certain payments, whereas Britain is not only to be allotted smaller payments, but would not be certain of receiving even those. Moreover, Britain never has recovered and never will recover the difference of £200,000,000 between what so far she has paid to America and what she has received from Europe. Britain also objects to a continuance of deliveries in kind for a further period of 10 years, and the fact that the directorate of the new International Bank is to include more French and German representatives than British. There are also the thorny questions of the evacuation of the Rhineland and the proposed Committee of Verification and Conciliation to be considered. The British Dominions have been given an opportunity of being directly represented at the Reparation Conference to be held at The Hague, but few intend to avail themselves of it. The Governments of New Zealand and Australia have decided to leave their interests to British Treasury officials.