AFTER BERLIN?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 196, 27 January 1915, Page 7

AFTER BERLIN?

THE DIFFICULTY OF ADEQUATELY PUNISHING GERMANY FOR HI'.U CRIME. HER INDUSTRY NOT EASILY CRIPPLED. (By lAlastair Frank, i n the Glasgow Herald). j Immediately the Allies enter Berlin— ' as, of course, tlicy will enter it—nego-1 tiations will be opened as to the terms of settlement. Russia, France, and Belgium will all require an indemnity in territory and money. Great Britain wants no Continental territory., All the land she will get will be the not very vauable colonies which she has already seized in Africa and elsewhere. Great Britain's indemnity must therefore be in money. But when we talk about a money indemnity we do not mean that Germany will actually pay over in gold and silver the hundreds of millions which the 'Allies will exact. I doubt if there is gold and silver currency on the Continent fit to pay half of the huge sum which will be demanded. Germany will nav for her crime by her industry. She will sell her goods cheaply the world over, and from the money—or credit—■ that thereby ensues, she will seek to pay off her indebtedness to her conquerors.

If we raise a protective tariff against German manufactures, it will be obviously impossible for Germany to pay ' us the indemnity we desire in goods. Her alternative of course will be to flood the other markets of the world with her productions at sweated labor rates, and thereby get the necessary money. It is open to question if this would be much better for us. It would enable Germany once more to gain a foothold in the foreign markets, which we at present are trying so hard to capture. She would suffer for a long time, but immediately she had cleared herself of_ her debt'to the Allies she® would again be in a position to become Great Britain's most dangerous rival in the warfare of commerce. This is pretty nearly what happened in the case of conquered France at the end of the Franco-German war; it is assuredly what would happen in the case of conquered Germany. But, you will say, there will be no Germany after the war. Unfortunately, that docs not alter the ease. Germany has all along been a series of small States except on Imperial issues. At the end of the war she is certain to have much of her industrial population still unharmed, much of her machinery and most of her factories still Intact. Unless our armies start to pillage and raze all around, to commit murder and rapine< it is doubtful if,, at the end of the war, we shall have gained such a commercial advantage as some people fondly hoped. Nothing short of partial extermination of the German people will ever prevent them from becoming our competitors again. We may be incensed at their conduct, but murder is a thing we will never aim at. If the policy of hate and retribution were to govern the Allies' counsels "after Berlin," we would be faced with an economic problem as great as the pre- . sent military one. The more one stud- [ ies the question, the more apparent does it become that lasting vengeance upon Germany is humanly impossible. When we have taken such steps as will ensure the lasting peace of the world and the removal of the peril of German militarism, we shall have done all that we can ever do. The tears and wailings of the innocent women and children of Belgium will never be properly avenged. ' But the barbarism of Berlin will have been removed from our midst.