MAINTAINS REPARATION DEMANDS TOO GREAT

The following article was sent to the Crimson from Hamburg by Mr. F. M. Warburg '10, a former editor of this publication. It is a translation of an interview written by his uncle, Mr. Max Warburg, a prominent German merchant, for the "Financial Times," a British journal.

You ask for an interview about German finances and my opinion of the future, but there is only sense in such an interview when the interviewed has something new to say. At present, however, there is no shortage in information but only a shortage in the will to carry out the known facts. There are enough clever men in France, England, Italy, and Belgium, as the International Finance Conference clearly showed, who know the limits of what can be fulfilled. But these states have not the leaders with the civil courage to carry out what they know to be true on account of fear from the disappointment that such action would arouse in their own countries. A war of 4 1-2 years duration and a short-sighted, sinful peace, whose destructive results have wrought a two year's havoc in the whole world, have together brought misery and misfortune to the victors as well as to the vanquished. We have squandered human lives and property in a terrible way during the last six years. Now, like business men, we must cooperate and limit all obligations in the borders of possibility. If America and England do not grasp the necessity of cutting out the non-executable from their demands, they are bound to suffer heavily. Only when the victorious countries--France. Belgium and Italy--especially France, are alleviated in their burdens, can they in turn reduce their demands from Germany into a fulfillable sum. If this is not done we shall live on in a state of self-deception, led by politicians, not statesmen, under the pressure of militarists who can lead in war but not in peace. We citizens of a defeated land, can do but little to help; we must simply hope that these facts are realized abroad and that statesmen will somewhere spring up and, backed by the majority of the people, will bring these ideas to execution. Only in such a way can one work against the teachings of those who doubt in the wisdom of the present system. When one considers the short-sighted decisions of the various conferences, their pre-decided foolish actions, then can clearly be seen, where the Bolshevistic school finds its strength. One can not fight Bolshevism with treaties with Russia, forbidding pro-Bolshivik propaganda, but only by bettering the world's condition through a policy of cooperation.

Whatever atrocities and cruelties occurred during the War, they are dimmed in comparison to those wrought in the post-War period due to the unheard of Chauvinism and the economic brutalities, as well as the severest militarism that the world has ever seen. The disgraceful deed begun in Versailies, when all the high ideals for which the Entente pretended to fight were thrown everboard, must be understood in its true light and revised, otherwise no peace can come to the world and new catastrophes must follow.

A decomposition of Germany,--for which Foch and his followers are striving,--would drive her into the arms of Russia and force a Russo-German coalition. Europe can only be saved by allowing Germany to live,--her old powerful position need not be given back to her,--but enough strength must be left her to prevent a Russian supremacy in Europe. A healthy Germany will work for the reconstruction of Europe; a sick Germany must seek help through Russia.

In later years one will ask less about the blame for the War and more for the blame for the Peace. The present Entente meetings are simply frightened, blind searchings for a solution in which only capitalistic damages and the satisfaction of Chauvinistic desires are taken into regard. Not a word about real peace, amnesty, general disarmament or all the noble objectives for which the youth of the Allied nations fought and died.

As long as the atmosphere is so diseased, there is no sense speaking of single propositions. There is a sensible policy and a catastrophe policy, a chaos or a cosmos; we are in chaos without prospects of common sense!