Britain and reparations

The coming to power of Mr. Baldwin, a businessman, would mark, according to British opinion, the beginning of a decisive phase for the question of reparations. It is the opinion of all British financiers and businessmen, that it is necessary, for the prosperity of England, to reconstitute as soon as possible the economic market of Europe and, for this purpose, to definitively settle the problem of repairs.

It is worth remembering that Mr. Baldwin wanted to secure the collaboration of a political adversary, Mr. MacKenna, a big banker in the City, whose financial competence is not in dispute.

The Times gives an account of the increasingly bad economic situation of Europe in general and of England in particular, because of the commercial crisis which Germany is going through, a crisis which reacts on world trade.

The debacle of the mark is due, declares this newspaper, with the financial incapacity of Germany as much and more than with the burden of the reparations, it is absolutely necessary to restore the German finances, in the interest of the whole world.

At present India cannot buy the products of Lancashire partly because Germany, whose powers of purchase are reduced, cannot buy in as great a quantity the products of India as formerly.

We mentioned yesterday the interesting initiative of the British Chambers of Commerce, proposing the meeting of an international commission of experts. The Times declares itself in favor of this project. The time is approaching, he said, for Britain to intervene tactfully in the question of reparations, so that a financial mission will have the right to examine Germany's solvency thoroughly.

He concludes by condemning the policy of productive wages, which should be replaced by a rigorous control of German finances. It is confirmed that the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce will meet shortly in London.

The English delegates would intend to propose for the settlement of reparations a moratorium and an international loan whose interest and amortization would be guaranteed by duties on German imports and exports, payable in ounces which would imply an international control of all German customs... This information is to be compared to that published by the "Westminster Gazette" according to which Germany would ask for a four-year moratorium, larger payments being able to be made before its expiry, thanks to an international loan. At maturity, Germany could make annual payments that would be higher the longer the moratorium would have been.