JUSTICE FIRST.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1922, Page 5

JUSTICE FIRST.

GERMANY MUST PAY, FRANCE'S FIRM POLICY. CLAIM STILL STANDS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—'Copyright. Received Sept. 11, 5.5 p.m. Paris, Sept. 10. M. Poincare, speaking at the anniversary of the Battle of the Marne, declared that though France would never be guilty of Imperialism she intended that peace should be a reality. It was useless to compare the Allied sacrifices. France never contested the loyalty and bravery of her friends, and she did not want to compare expenditures and casualies. It was sufficient to say that none of them have a right to arrogate supremacy in victory during the four years. France had exhausted herself repairing singlehanded her damages in northern and eastern provinces, and he asked if that was just. If Germany avoided Belgium’s legitimate requirements she would put herself in a condition of default, and it only remained for France to utilise a liberty which she had not surrendered, and with which she will not part. “Before all,” he added, “we intend to recover our credit on Germany, and we cannot renounce our claim without ruining France. It is necessary, therefore, that willingly or perforce Germany shall fulfil her engagements. We are as jealous as others about European solidarity, but solidarity requires the safety of France. If we are not assisted to re-estab-lish ourselves we shall help ourselves. Let us swear on the battlefield of the Marne to obtain justice.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

MAKE GERMANY PAY. THE FRENCH VIEWPOINT. GREAT BRITAIN’S INTERESTS. London, June 20. “The depreciation of German money,’ ; said M. J. Leroux at the annual banquet of the French Chamber of Commerce, “is due to the insane policy of the Government of the Reich. It resulted notably from the considerable increase in the number of officials, the redemption of railways and canals, from indirect subsidies of all kinds granted to German industry —cheap tariffs of transport, cheap bread, cheap coal. To such ends was the German Treasury used, raising the fiduciary circulation from twenty-two hundred million marks in 1918 to one hundred’ and twenty thousand million in February, 1922. France, in consequence, feels assured that to protect the interests at the same time of the Allies and of Germany herself, she is right in asking the Allies to put an epd to such a policy, which can only lead to the bankruptcy of the German State, for the benefit of the German magnates of industry and to the detriment of just reparation.

“If it is true that there is an economic interdependence between nations, it is equally true that some have a produc tion antagonistic to one another. It is the case of Germany and Great Britain. If, on the other side, there is a country whose production is happily complementary to that of Great Britain, and therefore very seldom comes into competition with her, either here or on the other markets, that country is France. Add to it that France is the third best customer of Great Britain, India and the United States being first and second, what would become of the French market if we succumbed under the weight of our debts, and in particular of the 80,000 million francs we had to pay for reparation? “The bankruptcy of France canot be avoided if the Allies do not unite to make Germany pay. And Germany -can pay if she applies the measures indicated by the Commission of Reparations in view of a progressive rehabilitation of the mark. With the mark’s value raised, British products will no longer be so unequally placed, and they may find their way to the German market. Order in German finances would mean at the same time reduction of unemployment in Great Britain and payment of reparations. It can therefore be truly said that there is a close solidarity in the economic interests of France and Great Britain.”