The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1929 OVERLOADING THE DONKEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 734, 6 August 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1929 OVERLOADING THE DONKEY

'THERE is always a considerable difference between Philip * drunk and Philip sober. A few months ago Sir. Philip Snowden, then an acidulous member of the Labour Opposition in the House of Commons and drunk, of course, only with political temper, raised Cain in Great Britain by hinting at possible repudiation of the pile of war debts under which his country staggers. Now, it is reported that the same competent politician, as the sober Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government, will offer firm resistance at The Hague conference on Reparations to the proposal that a reduction should be made in Germany’s payments at the sole expense of Great Britain. If this report be substantiated at the “momentous” conference which opens today at a pleasant seaside resort near The Hague (delegates on such great occasions never fail to do themselves w r ell), even the irreconcilable enemies of Britain’s Labour Administration will for once at least be inclined to believe that Philip, either politically drunk or politically sober, has command of his wits and is the right man coldly to demand reasonable justice for the British Empire. So far, in the distribution of reparation payments and repayment of Avar debts the British nation has been treated as the patient donkey of the Allied and Associated PoAvers. There is a limit, hoAvever, even to a donkey’s patience. It has been reached on the question of Reparations. Under the Young plan for Germany’s payment of reparations and debts by thirty-seven annuities averaging about £104,000,000, instead of the DaAves annuity of £114,000,000 in round figures, Great Britain, which, of course, means the British Empire, Avould at least lose over £ 92,000,000 within the full period of payment. Moreover, as was pointed out in an informative, but exasperating, message from London yesterday, “Britain never has recovered and never will recoA’er the difference of £200,000,000 betAveen Avliat, so far, she has paid to America and Avhat she has received from Europe.” One of the queerest features about America’s association with European financial settlements is the fact that, officially, America has nothing AAhatever to do Avith them. The U.S. Treasury, however, collects stiff payments from Great Britain and Europe, including an incidental item of £40,000,000 for the upkeep of America’s Army of Occupation in Rhineland. As President Hoover has explained, since the American Government Avas not a party to the Reparation Plan, it Avill not be necessary for the United States to sign it. And yet the Avorld has rung Avitli praise of American experts and American multi-millionaire bankers for the manner in which they have settled European It is the same Avith the League of Nations. America avill not become a member for love or even for money, but if the League should ever become a triumphant success the origin of its triumph Avill be American. It is interesting to repeat A\hat one of the ablest English newspaper correspondents in Paris has said about the preposterous anomaly: “The American Government looks on at the establishment of the principle that German payments are chiefly to coA’er American credits and does not demur. It does not demur Avhen the Allies openly indicate that their demands are conditioned by American demands. It docs not demur Avlien .Germany agrees that her payments to the Allies are really payments to America. It does not demur Avhen the American delegation calculates the German debt on the table of the Allied debts. Yet it leaA r es a loophole. It does not take Mr. Chven Young (a former ploughboy) and his colleagues (millionaires Avith pale blue silk pyjamas) as its representatives. It is free tp say that it knoAvs nothing about them or its doings. This implied reservation won’t Avash!” To many people this great game of political poker, first at Paris and now at The Hague, is being played Avith sovereigns, francs, marks and lira, so that the final pool may be handed over to America in dollars. It has been said that, because the Young report is not entirely satisfactory to any one country, therefore it is highly satisfactory to all. Obviously, the time has arrived for the donkey to kick foreign financial experts on their silk pyjamas.