GERMANY’S DEBTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1922, Page 5

GERMANY’S DEBTS.

LENIENCY ADVOCATED. SHOULD BRITAIN FOREGO? THE LIBERAL POLICY, By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received May 21, 5.5 p.m. London, May 20. Mr. H. H. Asquith (leader of the Liberal Party), addressing the National Liberal Federation conference at Blackpool, said that nothing was more vital to the future of Europe than cordial friendship between Britain and France and such friendship was required in every international problem. For instance, our French friends must be told quite frankly that we would not countenance the association of Britain with any coercive measures to extort impossible payments from Germany. The restoration of our relations with France all depended on an immediate readjustment of the questions of reparations and indemnities. If asked what he would do if in power he would reply scale down the aggregate of Germany’s indebtedness so as to confine it to the material damage actually caused by the war. He would then endeavor to arrive, through the League of Nations, at. methods and terms of the payments Germany could carry out without disaster and ruin to her trade or her trade with the rest of the world, and such as would enable her to obtain an international loan. would abandon, in favor of France and Belgium, our claims to German reparations, and also cancel their indebtedness to Britain. He predicted the foregoing policy would soon be Britain’s policy. Mr. Asquith added: “People talk lightly or incomprehensively of a rupture of our relations with France. What is the alternative ? Are we going back to our isolation of the latter part of the nineteenth century, or a system of groups under the name of the balance of power. If so, for what was the war fought?”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

FINANCING GERMANY. HUGE LOAN PROPOSED. THIS MONTH’S REPARATIONS. Received May 21. 11.5 p.m. London, May 21. A number of American millionaires, including Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. Otto Kahu, Mr. C. H. Billings, and Mr. Oliver Jeslin, have arrived. Mr. Morgan is going to Paris to confer with bankers in reference to the proposed international loan of £200,000,000. — Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. Received May 21, 11.5 p.m. Paris, May 20. Official conversations between the Reparations Commission and Herr Hermes (German Finance Minister) are proceeding regarding the payments due on May 31.

The Temps states Germany proposes an agreement with the commission on the manner of balancing the German Budget and stopping currency inflation •by paper money. Germany rejects Allied financial control, but accepts as an extraordinary measure the checking of the accounts by the commission. The German proposals are subject to receiving an international loan. The negotiations are to continue while the international bankers consider the loan question.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.