WHAT FRANCE PAYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1941, Page 6

WHAT FRANCE PAYS

NAZIS' VENGEFUL TERMS FIFTY PER CENT OF INCOME. CONTRAS'!’ WITH GREAT WAR. Article 18 of the Franco-German Armistice terms. leportedjm June 24. imposed on France the cost of maintaining the Nazi army of occupation—2o million marks a day. At the rate of exchange fixed by the Armistice Commission —20 francs equals one reichsmark—the cost to France is 146 milliard francs a year. The whole French national income in pre-war days did not exceed 290 milliard francs, so that the Nazi Army of Occupation absorbs practically 50 per cent of France’s pre-war national income, that, is, the total of personal incomes. But owing to the diminution of the national income due to tile disasters of war the proportion exceeds 50 per cent.

When the Allied Armies of Occupation were charged to Germany after the last war the cost represented less than one per cent of Germany’s national income. The French budget, of 1939 was 66 milliard francs and the first war budget was 79 milliard francs, so that the sum demanded by the Germans is about twice France's war budget.

Included in the German Army in France are the troops in the invasion ports, though these are not strictly an "army of occupation." No credit has been allowed, I'm- any French property or territory taken by Germany. Down to April 30. 1921, German reparation payments had approximately covered the actual costs of the Allied Army of Occupation, on the assumption that credit was given for cessions of properly and for deliveries in kind. In June. 1919. it was promised that the cost of occupation should be reduced to 240 million marks a year when German demobilisation was satisfactorily completed. Later it was agreed that this sum should come into force as

J from May 1. 1922. The Dawes plan I provided that the prior charge on GerI man payments allocated to occupation I costs should be reduced, as from Sepj ternber I, 1924. to IGO million marks. ! the balance being met by the countries concerned out of repartition payments. The national income of Germany in 1913 was 45.7 milliard gold marks. In 1923 it was (50 per cent of this, in terms of 1913 purchasing power, namely. ;!B milliard gold marks. The cost of tile armies of occupation, reckoned at. 240 million gold marks, was thus less than 1 per cent of the national income, or more exactly, 0.35 per cent. The German budget expenditure in 1913 was 3.5 milliard mark'. In 1924. after stabilisation of the mark', it was 7.2 milliard. The cost <>f the armies of occupation ! was thus, in terms of the 1913 bud-1 gel. G.B per cent, arid in terms of the' 1924 budget, 3.3 per cent of the national expenditure. The contrast between the treatment f of Germany in 1919 and Germany's I treatment of France gives an indica- ; lion of the weight of Nazi savagery,' despite Hitler’s plaints about the Treaty of Versailles