EUROPE'S TROUBLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1920, Page 5

EUROPE'S TROUBLES.

REVIEWED BY MR. BALFOUR. SUGGESTED REMEDIES. By Tclesraph.—Tress Assn.—CopyTleht. London, Feb. 13. Mr. Balfour, replying in the House of Commons, declared that neither the Allied nor German experts wer<i able to estimate what Germany would be able to pay in 10 or 15 years hence. The Treaty provided that Germany might offer a lump sum within four months. The British Government hud ahvays been most anxious carefully tj limit its list of war criminals, but was not able to examine the other lists- The British Jist included nobody who carried out illegal orders, . unless he exceeded such orders. : He sympathised with the difficult position of M. -deinenceau who approved tho British view-point, but who was unable to escape the inclusion of persons guilty ofl individual crimes.

Mr. Balfour believed that no colors were too dark in which to paint the situation of a great part of Europe, but the deplorable: situation was not doe to the Treaty, but was the outcome o f the war and the application of the principle of fi*>]f-determination in wjiich the new States were refusing to co-operate with their neighbors. Mr. Balfour denied that Britain was in any wise responsible for the delayed Turkish peace. He considered the suggested intervention of the Teague of Nations with regard to Russia of no avail, because its leading members had already unsuccessfully tried to discover a solution at the Peace Conference.

Broadly speaking, the reason wJiy Europe lacked so many fundamental necessaries at present was because labor produced much less than before the war and credit had been shattered. A great amelioration in the condition cf Europe might be possible if the countries which th» war had left richer than before — (cheers) —fully assisted. Britain's greatest contribution to the solution wouia be to maintain intact and build up her great industrial system, around which the whole security of Europe really re-volved.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.