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108 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 1 (1923)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0108 and id is 1 raw text is: Germany as It Is Today
By MR. FR. NEUERBOURG
Of the Commerz-und Privat-Bank, Berlin, Hamburg

B   ANKERS are by nature no diplo-
mats.   Speech may have been
given to men to conceal their thoughts
as Talleyrand avers, but we bankers
generally say what we think and some-
times rather forcefully. So if some of
my remarks seem blunt, kindly lay it to
what the disciples of Freud would call
my occupational complex.
Two years ago Germany, appealing
through your new Secretary of State
to the American people, offered to pay
in reparation whatever sum the Presi-
dent of the United States should after
investigation determine as just and
within our capabilities. We have like-
wise and without reservations declared
our willingness to abide by the decision
of an impartial tribunal as proposed
recently by your Government. Both
of these   offers, however, unprece-
dented as they were in the history of
the world, have been rejected.
At the request of the Foreign Secre-
tary of Great Britain and also guided
by the counsel that came from your
country, we thereupon submitted on
the second day of May to the Allied
and Associated Governments a definite
offer stating what we sincerely believe
is the present maximum that Germany
is able to pay for reparations.
If the sum total does not seem suffi-
cient to you, there remains our offer to
accept the judgment of experts. If our
guarantees are considered unsatisfac-
tory, I must reply: What more can we
give than our Rhineland, all the posses-
sions and sources of revenue of the
Reich and the Federal States in any
form the reparation commission or a
loan-syndicate may determine, and in
addition the solemn promise to take what-
2

ever legislative steps shall be considered
necessary by our adversaries to assure
the full cobperation of German industry
and the prompt meeting of all our
obligations.
EvACUATION OF THE RUHR
Could we go any farther? France
answers-Yes, and calls our request for
an early evacuation of the Ruhr in-
sulting. But are you aware, as I,
coming from the Rhineland and know-
ing the Ruhr, am aware, that even the
Imperial Germany of pre-war days
never dared to place garrisons in this
district, fearing the sullen hostility
towards force of the miners and factory
workers? And can you imagine these
men, revolting against their own sol-
diery, working willingly at the command
of a foreign army? No, the request for
evacuation is with us not a question of
prestige-in that we concede the victor
the right of way-but a question of
common sense. If you want us to
work you must permit us to work un-
molested. Have as many Allied civilian
control commissions as you want any-
where, although their expenses are sap-
ping our strength for reparations. But
soldiers: no-unless you want to incite
sabotage, bloodshed and open rebellion.
German industry is ready for sacri-
fices to the utmost of its ability, pledg-
ing its physical assets as a guarantee of
good faith. Finance and trade are
willing, and labor, I know, will waive
what it considers its most precious
right gained during the revolution-
the eight-hour day. But at the end of
the long and dark road which you
expect us to travel, we must be able to
distinguish a faint glimmer of light;
1

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