Evening star., 1922-12-05
Continued from First page.)

Scarcely four wears have, elapsed since
the second treaty Of Versailles and.
clauses, the treaty has been outrageously
turned and twisted. BY a tragic coin
cidence having nothing whatever to do
with chance. the German reaction hits
France just were she Is most directly
threatened. Whereas France requires
Preparation and security. what one sees
across the Rhine is an economic eva
sion and military reaction. First the
economic evasion. "he American pub
lie is too we'll Informed to credit Ger
many's plea--in justification of her
| incapacity to pay--that the collapse
Of the mark is exclusively due to the
obltgst tionS imposed upon her by the
treaty.
The American public knows that
actual gold payments made by Ger
many to the reparation commission
have only amounted to s375.000.0OO
and that in the internal budget OF the
reich the total sum paid ont anaet e,
the treaty is less than the figure spent
by the German government in the
purchase of raw materials ana on
railways and i'll the postal ADMINS
tration. The collapse of the marx
was wished for and precipitated be-
cause il was at one and the sam" tl'Gs
, "a means of eludinG the reparatonai
payments in rendering the execution
OF the treaty more and more dlHlcult'
and secondly, il set up coinpetltioh
immensely facilitated by the cohdl-
tion of the exchange.
Two Ways to Collect.
Dumping before the war specula-
! tion in the fall of the mark after the
War-our enemy's methods are modi-
d! fed according to circumstances out
his frame of mind never alters. In
provokin strikes in England and the
United States the Germans hope to
find in those countries beneficial com
mercial reaction and converts 10 their
cause. 1t must be Ydr'';ted that there
is certain "ppnsiti"E between the
execution by Germany of the rcpara-
tIonal clauses and the industrial pros
perity of the conuuerinE nations.
In effect there exists only two way s
of transferring German rlches ana
property-the direct handing over OF
merchandise or the surrender of
bonds on gold basis. But how can
one procure these bonds In a continu-
Gus manner unless by surplus OF
expectations. At all events. whatever
would be so much less to furnish the
creditor countries and their indus
tries.
That is the reason there WAS such
a delay in France in applying that
section Of the treaty relative to repa-
,ratious in kind; that is why the Weis-
baden accord encountered hostility on
all sides: that i VIII! r"riain OF tn"
allies. only scheduled to draw a small
part of the reDar:,,,o1af payments
/ We're mort dsSIrGuS ot propoS r2 a re
duction in the German d'iii MA OF
voting measures TO hasten the "A1cu
ition of the payments.
Policy Of Waste.
Did not MIR. Mckcnna come her.
to say frankly that il England had
sought to reduce G+rmany's payments
Sh. had done xo because of her own
Ill f,tr h..pn ha n T.
Nd to get the merchandise asked for
from Germany? Measures. however
imposed themselves when il was seen
that Germany. violating thot claus"
in the treaty specifying that German
were to be at ieas' as heavily taxed
,as the allies. not only abstained fr n,
all serious fiscal effort hut pracricr..
q policy Of mad waste and rrodigai
:ity-30J. 300 railroad employees more
than in 1914: seven milliards of mark :
; for public works: twelve milliards
for the merchant marine. etc. The
printing press never ceased turning
and fiduciary imitation without pre-
cedent contributed to the desired for
collapse of the mark.
Finally. whereas. in 1915 a law was
voted ip France strictly prohibiting &
the export Of capital. the purchase o..
foreign bonds by individuals was tol-
Grated. even encouraged. by the reich.
so much so that one may say without
eXaggeration that only foreigners
now possess marks and that the Ger
mans hold almost exclusively dollars
pounds sterling, forms and Swiss
, francs. German investments in for
eign countries amount apparently &c
at least Il milliard of dollars.
Decrense Of the Mark.
i Have I not the right to conclude
that the German failure arises not 50
much from an incapacfty to pay as
from a deterIninatio not to ray?
How to make Germany pay? Above
everything else it is necessary to re-
move the preteXt beneath which she
is escaping her liabilities, namely. the
continuous decrease in the value OF
! her money. The mark needs to be
stabilized. do not know II the thin g
is possible; I shall simply make two
| observations. First. that the Ger
mans have in the end become the vic
tins of the movement which they
engineered.
The collapse of the mark has gone
SO far that today they are alarmed
consequences. Perhaps now they are
disposed to make the effort at re-
covery that should have been made
long ago. Secondly. we cannot afford
| in the mark. Consideration Of their
! situation should not hold up any de-
cisionS that are necessary. In order
to facilitate stabilizatfon. experts ask
, | for moratorium for Germany. I be-
lieve this postponement has not yet
, been officially accorded. but in point
of fact Germany has been enjoying ii
for more than a year.
Such a policy should only be coun-
| , tenanced if guarantees touching the
execution Of the treaty are increased
| to double those which already exist
! Are we in possession of these guar
antees? I doubt it. The last London
conference broke up without AN ac-
cord being reached. and the Brussels
conference is still but a project.
hope that all the measures neces-
sary will be taken now. to the end
that France. most affected by the
moratorium. may not have to bear the
consequences alone and that she
shall obtain proportionate aid from
her allies. Such would be but pure
justice. since if Germany is to be
given breathing space France ought
not to be allowed to expire in con-
| sequence.
Need, Raw Materials.
1t will be objected that the mora
torium ought not apply to reparations
in kind. That is exact. and 1 am
glad if the recent agreements come
to directly between German Industrial
districts of France, as allowed for
since 1919 in the treaty. Our devas-
tated regions will thus probably come
by more raw materials than they re-
Quire, but our budget will continue to
show deficit: the franc will continue
to fall, and 1t will be necessary to rely
on a loan in order to advance the
the result that our responsibilities
will become increasingly heavy.
Yes. but 1t is argued that during
that time we can control the finances