WHY GERMANY MUST PAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1919, Page 5

WHY GERMANY MUST PAY.

TWO FACTS TO BE REMEMBERED. WAR LOST IF SHE DOES NOT PAY. "We have to make peace with two clear facts in mind," Bays Mr. Frank H. Simonds, the famous American correspondent, in an article published by the San Francisco Chronicle, " —that IVance mußt be fortified against Germany until such time as it has made certain that Germany lma changed her ideas and her purposes—and we have no assurance , that there has been any change, no sign of any change—and, further, we cannot safely assume that since old men are still running new Germany, new Germany is anything but an enlarged and camouflaged edition of old Germany. It is perfectly impossible in preseui circumstances to put all our confidence in the League of Nations and retire, leaving Germany more powerful than she was before, the sole gainer in all respects as a result of this war, since she has devasttaed France, compelled Britain to mortgage her financial future to America, and reduced the commercial fleet* of the world. ' But how then are we at Paris to save the war? Obviously in two ways. Th:v cost of the war must be borne either by the. Allies, who defended themselves, or by Germany, who attacked them. Germany, in lighting the war, drew upon her internal resources and can repudiate her debts; Englaud and France and Italy were compelled to borrow off America, and cannot repudiate tlieir debts. Either the French and British and Italian peoples will 'have to stagger under the burden of this debt —and in the case of France, under the added burden >» incident to the destruction by the Germans of French industrial region—or thai burden must be lifted from Allied shoulders to German.

"If the Germans escape it, they can resume the old game of arming, if French and British and Italian taxpayers have to shoulder it, they would be unable to arm themselves adequately for self(lefence. It is essentia! for Americana to realise that the question of reparation and restitution, even of indemnity, is not punitive; it is not a programme of plunder of Germany. It is only an effort to save, primarily, France, which has suffer- > ed most, but England and Italy as well from the crushing burden placed upon them by the necessity of defending themselves against Germany. ■ NOT OF REVENGE. "Above all, it is essential tliat American,-) should recognise that it is not ill a.' spirit of plunder, that it is. not in a spirit of revenge, that the statesmen of Paris ure compiling a bill of damages against Germany. It is purely and simply u question of whether Germany shall pay for what she did or succeed in ruining those nations who were her commercial rivals, both by systematically destroying ; t heir industrial machinery and by load- ? iug them with colossal debts incurred in defending themselves against German, assault. j;, "There is a too ready tendency in '<■ American quarters, here at least, to read \ into the purpose of our allies motive | ; and reasons which are not there. In a s very large degree the Germans will win * ■ the war if they make the people they at- ■ taeked bear the great burden of It, and ' . once more we must remember that we i" are still at Avar with Germany. 'ln the second place we have got to restore the balance of power in Europe, destroyed when Germany eliminated Russia as * nation and as a force in the world. ''Unless we can replace Russia by some v other force of equal strength there, will *3 be nothing left in Europe capable of op' :j posing 50,000,000 of the Germans occupy- A ing the centre of the continent, united, J*T§ capable of indefinite effort, and having still open to them the temptation ol world power; in fact, having it open taj'them even more completely than It w&ji ■ in 1914, when they took tßeir grey's*,,:' gamble. ' f " < ' "And this can be done, this new fppee can be created, only in ou way. shall create real, strong,'national in Poland and Bohemia, in RouoaiJi! WW ■ > out of the Southern Slavs, as well S# vy ■■ f completing the unification of • we shall have added to against German aggression A 60,000,000 of the people divided, Afljif afci ' tionß, but capable of very urgent ■ raent, capable of becoming TMtl entities, capable at no distant fending themselves and.sirri#s entsWW