COLLAPSE OF MARK.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1922, Page 5

COLLAPSE OF MARK.

ANXIETY IN BRITAIN. REPARATIONS INVOLVED, GERMANY NOT PAYING. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received July 11, 5.5 p.m. London, July 10. The Prime Minister, in the House of Commons, said it was undesirable to deal with reparations in answer to Parliamentary questions. He said there might be developments during the next few days which would render a statement desirable. Up to the present the Germans had not even paid instalments which would cover the cost of the actual damage to Belgium and France. London, July 10. Official circles are gravely anxious regarding the German financial crisis. Cabinet considers the situation to-morrow. It is reported that Mr. Lloyd George informed the United States that the position was most dangerous. The early assembling of the Supreme Council of Allied Finance Ministers and experts is regarded as imminent. The latest drop in the mark is not yet fully explained. The German purchase of foreign securities for the July reparation payment, together with speculation and panic, are regarded as insufficient reasons, especially as the Wirth Government has weathered the storm caused by the murder of Dr. Rathenau and the Monarchist reaction. If France can be persuaded to forego her earlier objections, the International Bankers’ Committee, armed with full powers, may be asked to reconsider the loan question.

Two schools of thought are forming—one which fears a Red revolution in Germany, and desires to assist Germany; the other believes the situation cannot be finally relieved till she has passed through national insolvency. There is considerable press opposition to British money going to help Germany. THE CAUSE DISCUSSED, A DELIBERATE MOVE. Berlin, July 10. The Freiheit suggests the cause of the collapse of the mark is internal, not external, inferring it is deliberately engineered by reactionary German capitalists who purposely kept foreign currency out of the market, and pointe out that quotations in Germany are consistently worse than abroad. It recalls significantly the converse case of how during the KappPutech regime, while the Kappists were in power, the mark was driven up by some unknown agency, though it fell with the Kapp failure. DANGEROUS SITUATION. GERMAN CABINET MAY FALL. Received July 11, 9.45 p.m. London, July 11. The Westminster Gazette states the British Government anticipates the early complete financial collapse of Austria, and fears that if Germany increases taxation and ceases to print paper money, which is the only way to stabilise the currency, the present Government will fall and will be replaced by an autocratic administration.