PAYING FOR THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1919, Page 5

PAYING FOR THE WAR.

GERMANY'S LIABILITY. FRANCE ASKS FOR JUSTICE. Under the title, "Who shall pay first France or Germany 1" the Matin prints a striking article on the subject of indemnity and on the proposed levy of a 25 per cent, tax on capital. "Supposing tlmt in 1871," says the writer, "when the Germans held France from the Loire to Flanders, Bismarck had said to the German people: 'We have crushed France and imposed on her an indemnity of two hundred millions sterling, which is rather more than the war has cost us. However, as we are not absolutely Bure that France can pay this two hundred millions, I propose to take oue-flfth of the property of every German citizen in order to meet the deficit in the Budget of the new German Empire.' If Bismarck had made such a proposition, do you not think the German people would have shut him up as a lunatic or stoned him?"

The Matin writer goes on to point out that, although it has not yet been decided what Germany must pay for having let loose war and ruin on the world, the French. Government have already announced that the best means of paying the cost of the war will be to take from every Frenchman one-fifth or one-quarter of his property. "The knifo is ready," he says, "not to bleed the assassin who has been conquered, but his victim who is the conqueror." The proposed new tax on capital, the Matin points out, is aimed not only at a-quar-ter of the fortune of the millionaire, as some people seem to believe, but at a-quarter of the savings old servants and employees have put aside for their old age, at a-quarter of the trader's merchandise, \it a-quarter of the farmer's field, at a-quarter of the peasant's furniture.

"Will half or three-quarters of the German fortune be taken flrst? Nobody seems to know. Will they take first hai or three-quarters of the waggons of gold and diamonds the Kaiser took with him into exile? Nobody knows. Will they take half or throe-quarters of the savings of the people of Poinerania, Bavaria, or Hesse, whose sons and brothers burnt Rheims, annihilated Amiens, sacked Valenciennes, pillaged Lille, devastated five French departments? Nobody knows. Will they take half or three-quarters of the property of the German Junkers, of the lands of the boche farmers, of the beer of the boche brewers, of the furniture of the boche peasants? Nobody knows. All we know is that, to meet this debt due to German crime, it is proposed to take forthwith one-quarter of the fortune of France, and that before even presenting the bill to the debtor they are seeking how to despoil the creditor." The Matin draws a bitter contrast between the fact that every soldier will receive a demobilisation premium of ton pounds on leaving the army, and a few months later will be called upon to pay the State a-quarter of all he possesses. The Matin concludes by characterising the proposed capital tax as "ruin and imbecility."