WHAT SHALL WE MAKE GERMANY PAY?

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1916, Page 4

WHAT SHALL WE MAKE GERMANY PAY?

A CALCULATION IN MILLIONS. How much indemnity should be exacted from the Central Powers, and what form should it take, if the Allies are in * position to impose an indemnity? Mr. Edgar Craminond, in the 19th. Century, thinks Germany, with should he made to pay on the scale of the, indemnity .imposed by Germany on France in IS7O. France, besides losing Alsace-Lorraine, the money value of which may be set down at £04,000,000, had to pay £200,000,000, spread over three years, during which a German army was to occupy a considerable portion of French territory. Yet the war was a short one, the German losses in men we're comparatively light, and German territory did not jsuffex at all. Mr. Crammond calls attention to Hie cfeliberato destruction wrought by the German and Austrian armies in Belgium, France and Poland, apart from the inevitable destruction of military operation;:. He calculates the capitalised national income of the Central Powers as £2o,ooo,ooo,ooo—Germany £15,000,. 000,000, and Austria-Huugruy £.5,000,. 000,000. 'The direct cost of the war to the Allied Powers to March 31 next may be estimated at £8,000,000,000. He is convinced that in one way or another !C2 ( 0O0jfl00,008 to £3,000,090,000 could be evaded from them cither immediately or by way of annual tribute. The war 'claims should he pooled and presentfed as flue claim by the Allies. First, the German mercantile fleet should be applied to making good the shipping losses inflicted on the Allies. Germany should be required to return in kind the rolling stock, agricultural stock, machinery, raw material and manufactured goods, works of art, etc., of which she has deliberately robbed the Allies. Her manufactured jgo'ods .stored up for export when peace is declared should be taken as part paywent of the indemuity. There might remnin a balance of p'erhaps £8,000,000,000. Debt oertifioates of this amount should be given and distributed proportionately among the Allies. They should be paid by an annual tribute on the German and Austrian manufactures, a similar export duty on all export or raw material to the Germanic Empires, and the maritime Powers should ioiposo.fcupplementary war debt dues on all German and Autsrian shipping entering thein, ports in all parts of the work* T