The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1918. MADE TO DISGORGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1918. MADE TO DISGORGE.

j One of the gratifying features of " the armistice is that compelling ■ the Germans to disgorge the plunder they have taken from, and the levies they have made upon, RusI sia, Roumania, Belgium and France. They set themselves deliberately to rob the countries they invaded, it being, in their distorted view, quite the right | thing to enrich themselves at the expense of their innocent victims. Their own papers have repeatedly referred to the booty and to the levies on Belgian, Polish, French ' and Roumanian cities as part of i the "war indemnity" due hj? the ; Allies to Germany. It was not so very long since the Frankfurter Zeitung declared that the empire , cculd partly pay the huge war debt with the plunder captured by the Imperial armies in occupied ; territory and in Russia. This plan 1 was advocated at the time oi: the great German offensive in the 1 spring. The Rhenish organ rei marked complacently that it was impossible to estimate the loss to France through the devastation of towns and rural districts by tire German armies, but the gain to ' Germany by pillage and requisition could be calculated. The eighth German war loan returned £720,000,000, and raised the debt of the empire to £4,360,000,000 consolidated since 1914. The most effectual means for covering this heavy war expenditure were ready to hand in the booty captured and money extorted in tils occupied territory. "The German armies are the best instrument for the amortisation of the war debt by squeezing the enemy," it continued. "During six months, from October, 1917, to March, 1918, the Central Empires captured a value of £75,000,000 solely in arms, munitions and railway rolling stock. To this booty must be added clothing, oil, fats, copper and rub ber seized in the north of Fran'-e, sufficient for German needs during an entire year. The total plunder of the Imperial armies and German administrative extortions in all invaded countries are equivalent to a big war indemnity, and are most beneficial to German finances." Under supplementary treaties between Germany and the. Bolshevist Government, details of which were published in the German newspapers in September, Germany imposed dn Russia a levy of three hundred million sterling, to be paid in five instalments, as the price for the evacuation of a small strip of Russian territory east of the Beresina, and there was an implied threat that further withdrawals would have to be similarly purchased. Natnr- ■ ally the enemy newspapers re- . joiced over this indemnity, but they emphasised that the supplementary treaties provided for an indemnity in goods as well as one in gold, and goods they regarded as far more acceptable than gold under existing conditions. The Berlin Tageblatt explained why the payment of the indemnity was spread over a period. AW 1371 the French paid their indemnity rapidly, releasing their country from the German yoke entirely, and it is generally held that Germany suffered more through the consequent inflation than France did by the sacrifice. The intention in Russia was to prolong the tributary relationship, and Germany was thinking of herself and not at all of Russia when she made the conditions, although her agents alleged that the periodic payments were arranged so as to embarrass Russia as little as possible. It is implied, further, that extensive economic concessions were demanded and obtained, though the details of these have not been made public. The Germans treated Roumania as a conquered country, robbing it right and left, and tying up her mineral and agricultural resources for the next hundred years. The Roumanians, in fact, were to be made the virtual slaves of their Teutonic masters. The Government was only a shadow of the German military authority, and could not call its soul its own. No better instance of the depravity of the German character could be had than its excessively unjust treatment of the little Roumanian nation when at the mercy of the Germans. One can appreciate the feelings of the Roumanians now towards their oppressors, and their desire to shunt out Mackensen and his troops; also their gratitude at having joined up with the AngloFrench Salonika forces, which before the armistice was signed had I forced the passage of the Danube end entered Wallachia. It will j have been a glad day for Rou- ' mania, for it meant the rehabilitation of the nation, the extension of its kingdom to embrace Transylvania (peopled by Roumania, ,' but for many years held in servitude by Austria-Hungary), and the guarantee of freedom from . the menace of any of its formerly ',' hostile, big neighbors. The exactions- of the<enemy in Belgium and / .northern France are well known, ] and it is not surprising to learn j ;§£:. Ammcaa>{SpffiC6.ihajL.-.^ I Ji

will take billions of pounds to make good the losses and damage wantonly done. Germany should not be let off a penny. Indeed, if justice is to be done, she should, besides making restitution and reparation, be forced to meet the war costs of the Allies to the fullest extent possible, even if it means keeping the German nation in financial and industrial bondage for the next century or more, Germany is obliged to drop her booty of 1871—that of AlsaceLorraine, which is shortly to be occupied by General Mangiu'* army. The recovery of Alsace* Lorraine was made early in the war one of the principal aims of the Anglo-French, and its consummation is of the highest importance, not only to the French nation—which has never been reconciled to the loss of its beloved provinces—but to the whole world, for it removes for all time a possible cause of conflict. It will be a great day for France when General Mangin enters Strassburg, and the hated occupancy by the Germany, comes to an end. France has suffered terribly in this war, but to recover AlsaceLorraine will be to them a great compensation for their sacrifices, as will be the knowledge that the bestial Boche has been crushmgly defeated at his own game, and is being made to pay the penalty for his unforgettable and unforgivable crimes.