OCR Text |
Show New Clash Era Coming events in Europe supersede super-sede the importance of Manchuria Manchur-ia as trouble-makers for the world The Chancellor of Germany has publicly announced that Germany is unable to make reparations payments. Immediately thereafter the Premier of France announced lhat his country would not allow Germany to avoid its obligations. To properly understand the real problem (he following fact as reviewed re-viewed by the New York Times should be kept in mind: "In the Treaty of Versailles Germany Ger-many agreed to make reparations for damages to civilians in the wai In May, 1:)21, the Reparations Commission, composed of Allied delegates, ruled that Germany and her allies were liable for approximately approxi-mately $31,000,000,000. Protesting the sum as excessive, Germany paid some installments, and then defaulted. "In 1923 France and Belgium attempted to maice collections by marching troops in the Ruhr, but Germany passively resisted, and in the end it was decided that this plan of collection was uneconomic. "Creation of the Dawes plan in 1924 resulted. It did not fix Germany's Ger-many's total obligation, but st annual payments, after a period o of transition, at $595,000,000 annually. an-nually. To collect them an organization organ-ization headed by S. Parker Gilbert Gil-bert was created. Through the Agent General for Reparations Payments, a transfer committee, and other bodies, collections were made regularly for five years. However, Germany borrowed from foreign interests in that period about as much as she paid. "In response to a feeling both inside and outside Germany that the amount of Reparations Germany Ger-many would eventually pay should be determined absolutely, a conference con-ference for study of the problem was started at Geneva in 1928. A Committee then appointed was headed by Owen D. Young, and it met in Paris in 1929. The plan it formulated was known as the Young Plan. "Under the Young plan, the total to-tal liability of Germany was fixed at about $9,000,000,000. It provided provid-ed that Germany pay the revised reparations sum in fifty-eight instalments, in-stalments, which in the first thirty-seven years would averarje about $474,000,000 after which they would decrease. JiTi.imy's obligations were de-vided de-vided into two grand classes. lh first were unconditional payments, amounting to about $3,000,000,000, covering reconstruction costs in Allied countries, and terminating in 1976. The second were conditional, condi-tional, or postponable payments, about $6,000,000,000, which were designed to cover the debts of the Allies to the United States, and to terminate when these debts matured mat-ured that is, in 1988. "It was frovided that if interallied inter-allied debts should be reduced, two-thirds of such reduction would be transferred to Germany in the first thirty-seven years and thereafter be applied in full to Germany .About five-sixths of the unconditional payments go to France. "At present, Germany owes about $4,046,000,000 in private debts. The Hoover moratorium which ends in July, provided for suspension of reparations, and the 'standstill;' iagreementi, ending in February,' provided relief on private-debt service." |