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2
The Reparations yth.
One of the most persuasive points in the Nazi propaganda in
Germany is that the Treaty of Versailles included Reparations
clauses which bled Germany white and, until the rise of Herr
Hitler to power, prevented her economic and financial recovery.
That the Allies originally fixed the reparations figure at an impossible height has always been admitted, and very soon it was scaled down. What is never mentioned in Germany is that the money
was never paid!
As The Times recently pointed out, if there is any grievance
"Of the total it is the Allies who have reason to complain.
amount of Reparations fixed at Brussels in 1921 Reichsmark Germany had not up to 1932, when the whole amount
-
152 milliards
outstanding was cancelled, paid quite ten per cent in cash."
this was not forthcoming from German sources,
Even
Nearly one third
of it was paid out of the "Dawes" and "Young" loans, which are
now actually in partial default.
A careful investigation has shown further that Germany borrowed from abroad fully twice as much as she paid in Reparations, and on most of this debt Germany has defaulted in one way or another. Thus Germany has paid such Reparations as she has met out of money
More than borrowed mainly from those to whom Reparations were due! that, much of the money lent to her in order that she could set her economic machine in order and pay Reparations was used on the reconstruction and the rearmament of Germany.
In Britain particularly there soon developed a feeling that the punitive clauses of the Treaty of Versailles were unjust, and
The manner in a lenient eye was turned on Gerran evasion of them.
which this British magnanimity has been met in Germany is now
plain for the whole world to see.