REPARATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1921, Page 5

REPARATIONS.

GERMANY’S DEFAULT. THREATS BY FRANCE. DRASTIC ACTION HINTED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 18, 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 17. The Daily Express’ Paris correspondent states that Germany’s refusal to meet the next reparations payment has caused tension. If the Reparations Commission decides to invite the German Chancellor to produce proofs of Germany’s insolvency France will insist that all her allies recognise her right of priority in compensation for the devastated areas. France needs ready money badly, and if Germany defaults it is practically certain that France will put the military and economic penalties into execution on January 15, even at the risk of breaking the Entente. The only way M. Briand will be able to save his Government will be to announce a inarch into the Ruhr region. Received Dec. 18, 5.5 p.m. Paris, Dec. 17. The Reparations Commission, in reply to Germany, regrets that the latter has not outlined what measures she has taken, following the commission’s note of December 2, to ensure payment of reparations and to restore her financial position. The commission is surprised that Germany furnished no precise statement showing what payments she was able to make in January and February, what period she required in which to pay the balance, and what guarantees she offers during the delay. The commission states that until it receives information on these matters it cannot consider Germany’s request.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.

GOLD BY CHEMISTRY. AN AMAZING POSSIBILITY. Received Dec. 18, 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 17. Professor Irving, of the Fisher University, lecturing at the London School of Economics, suggested that there was a serious possibility that German chemistry may devise a method of manufacturing gold in the laboratory for the payment of indemnities. He added: “I am informed that a German chemist has already succeeded in making synthetic gold from baser metals by means of an electric vacuum furnace, and it only remains for cheaper production to sufficiently flood the world with chemical gold so as to make reparations a farce, and Germany, instead of paying the penalty, will get enormously rich by exploiting the new philosopher’s stone. The Allies ought to have fixed Germany’s payments in kind.”