LLOYD GEORGE ON GERMANY

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1921, Page 6

LLOYD GEORGE ON GERMANY

SHIRKING THE BILL. REMEDIES FOR BAD TRADE. Mr. Lloyd George, who received the freedom of Birmingham on February sth, made three speeches in the city dealing with Germany’s reparation payments and disarmament as decided by the Paris Conference, and with the trade “slump” throughout the world. “There is one advantage in the way in which that bill to Germany has been framed,” he said. “It is scaled according to German prosperity. If Germany is not prosperous she cannot pay. If Germany is prosperous she can pay, and she must pay. \ “We have started at a comparatively low figure. Why? Because we realise that Germany undoubtedly has great difficulties at the present moment. She has lost her Colonies—all. “THEY CAN AND MUST PAY.” “Having inflicted, the war damage, they can pay,’ and must pay. Dr. Simons, German Foreign Minister, I may say at once, is a very able man, I think a very high-minded man, as I judge men. I ask Germany not to allow herself to ,be misled by the passion of the moment into repeating the follies of 1914. Germany has not yet taxed herself to the level of Britain or France. “The burden imposed is not an extravagant one. For the first two years 1 it is not equal to the annual pension bill of France or Great Britaiji alone. “It is purely a question of good will, as far as Germany is concerned. Dr. * Simons has said that he has some alternative proposals. As long as these proposals represent a bona-fide effort to liquidate the liabilities of Germany we are willing that Germany should pay I as under conditions whiefli best suit ■ her own means, requirements and re- ■ sources, but if it is a mere attempt to evade payment we cannot put up with J that.”

With regard to the trade depression Mr. IJoyd George said we are simply going through the inevitable difficulties that ensue after a great war. “There are those who blame 9 Governments. What is the good of doing that? If you change the Government you do not charge the facts. v In France since the peace there had been f(Air Governments, in Italy since the peace there had been four; he did not know how many in Germany, and, so far as he knew, there was no Government at all in Russia. That must be a happy land. “I wonder what The Times would do in a country like that with no Government to criticise?

“We are not going to restore the depleted energies of the world with a ‘tasteless rehash of the tinned meats of Abingdon Street.’ The trouble is real, and to curb it we must find the causes. Trading in the present conditions of fluctuating exchanges is like playing billiards with a heavy sea on, pitching and rolling, so that we never know into which pocket the ball would go. One of the first necessities of the restoration of international trade is some sort of stabilisation of the Exchange, and we shall not get that until we have fixed the indemnities.”

Continuing, Mr. Lloyd George said he had an uneasy suspicion that Germany was not trying to stabilise her money. She was making a great display of her poverty, and asking the Allies how she could pay the indemnity when she could not keep a roof over her head! Germany was not taxing herself, “and I am going to tell Dr. Simons that when I meet him in London shortly.” WARNING TO BUILDERS. Let Capital and Labor stand together. Both were essential to tne country’s prosperity. But let Labor help itself. He did not like the dog in the manger policy of the Builders’ Union when they refiued to allow ex-Service men out of a job to go and help with the bricks and the mortar to build houses and a shelter for their fellow-workers.

“But/’ he concluded, (f if Capital, if Labor, if men of all parties, if, as a nation, we work together, I have absolutely no doubt that w r e shall win through, and that this country will be stronger, mightier and more prosperous than ever.”