Dec. 29.
The Advisory Committee Report on Germany's position [regard to the Reparation Pay ments has cleared the way for an international conference of the urgency and importance of which there can be little doubt. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's invita, nto M, Laval for a preliminary conference, with the! view apparently of getting into] focus the respective policies of Great Britain and France is the first step towards the summoning of such a gathering. The whole world is looking anxiously ahead to the second month of the year which will be ushered in on Friday. On the ability of its! statesmen to deal with the economic crisis which the peril' of Germany implies will greatly' depend not only the success of the Disarmament Conference but indeed the prevention of a catastrophic, collapse of the fabric of Western _civilisation. The Advisory Committee have been called' upon, under the! terms of the Young Plan, to make a full investigation of Germany's position and satisfy themselves that the German authorities have made "every effort in their power to fulfil
tion for the convening of the Committee was made by Germany in accordance with the provisions of the "Young Plan. "The Committee have no power to bind any of the Powers. Their function is purely advisory They comprise, however, nomices by the Central Banks of the creditor countries so that their recommendations or rather findings must carry special authority. It is difficult to believe that any Government will lightly face the responsibility of ignoring their verdict. When this journal its discussed the problem of Ger-ition a few days ago ity of Germany to convince the creditor nations of her readiness to fulfil her obligations, if such a pro-less were possible, The citcumstances in which the other} countries found themselves were such that an examination of the position on the basis of Germany's resources was essential, It is irrelevant now to discuss whether the Dawes Plan or its successor, the Young Plan, could have been satisfactorily worked out if German policy had been different. It may be generally: agreed that whatever plan of Reparations had been devised, 30 long as its operation extended over a term of years, so long. would it give the debtor nation an incentive to strive by any] legitimate device known to fnanders to lighten the load. Thus! the Dawes Plan had to be scrap ped. The Young Plan was from-_ fed to give finality and to remove the irksomeness of the facter of leontrol_ which its predecessor held. It was, defeated—apart from Germaiy's own development of her financial arrangements—-by the precipitate fall in world prices which has plunged Europe and America into the throes of budget deficits. The Hoover Moratorium gave the world a breathing space. It was soon apparent that it would not be sufficient as a permanent bulwark against collapse. In Germany conditions became so ser fous that, in making their formal application under the Young Plan for the appointment of the Advisory Committee, the Bruening Government. specifically declared that justice to the actual situation was not done by the mere statement of their belief that "Germany's endangered by the transfer part or in full of the postponable portion of the annuities" under the Plan, Conditions—economic jand finaneial—had been "fundamentally altered by an unparalleied crisis." The statement drew pointed attention to the fact that Germany's private indebtedness had to be settled in due time, before the end of February next.
It to be sceptical but it is impossible to remain blind to the fact that neither the framers of the Young Plan nor the other experts who have handled this matter foresaw or could have foreseen the course of economic events in the last two years—the fall in prices beyond fall expectation, the world-wide trade slump, national deficits, i ternational failures to avoid tariff wars and all the rest, of the doleful record. Indeed Germany may well retort to those ho reproach her with having of set purpose plunged into reckless borrowing, by inquiring whether the policy of her creditors has been so impecable as to place them beyond criticism. 'The vigour of feortain German protests has, it is true, led to the unnecessarily: heated' canvassing of political issues arising out of the War. The Treaty of Versailes has been a'target for German criticism. Such ebullitions may be as natural, as tie attempts, of which this journal gave an example, to show that Germany's financial position was either not so gloomy as she painted it of, if it were, were the result of avoidable methods of incurring obligations. The real truth is that controversy on these lines is arid and futile. The report now issued at Basle, as the result of Ge many's own representations,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.