Dhe most recent, fateful overthrow of the Mark roused the Reich Government and the Reparations Commission from their inactivity almost at the same time. The government of the Reich has begun a police measure in which it forbids the use of foreign currency to increase the rate of exchange in internal German traffic for specific purposes. But it was clear from the outset that this negative means would immediately have to be followed by other, positive ones with real economic effects if the campaign was to have any lasting success at all. The creation of an inner-German investment security of stable value as a replacement investment option for the prohibited foreign exchange purchases immediately arose as a necessity from the ban: it has in fact already been decided in principle and only the details are still being worked on, so that will probably be in a few days these details should also be certain.
The main question, however, on which the success of the other measures also depends, has not yet been decided: whether the Reichsbank can be persuaded to give up its rigid resistance to any use of its gold holdings for purposes of currency regulation, no one can say today. The only thing that can be said is that despite all the very obvious doubts and worries that are linked to such a step, the conviction in the professional circles involved is constantly growing that this last resort of rescue must be attempted despite all misgivings. Of course, a lasting healing can only come from a final solution to the reparations question, only from a sanitation of finances and the economy based on this, also internally. But over time, until this is ripe, we must try to save ourselves by the utmost means.
struggle between two directions
To look on with fatalistic inactivity as the chariot rushes into the abyss would be to neglect the duty of those who are called to lead. It is really bad enough that the last market crash of this magnitude could have been mitigated or even avoided if those responsible had acted earlier! We must find the courage to make decisions, even if we cannot guarantee their success with certainty, but can only hope for it. And the latest negotiations of the Reparations Commission seem very likely to speed up such decisions.
For within the Reparations Commission, the recent collapse of the market has recently led to a struggle between the two directions: between those who finally want to clear the way for reason, and the others who are responsible for the disaster, which they are largely responsible for, only as pretense to bend us even more politically. The debate was brought up by the French with the question of whether the enormous increase in our pending guilt, which was a consequence of the fall of the market, is not to be seen as a culpable misconduct on the part of Germany, which certain French politicians have been ardently wishing to state from the very beginning . However, this question quickly receded into the background when the English delegate presented Bradbury with a plan that tackled the problem from the fundamentally opposite side, namely based on the realization that Germany must now finally be granted a breathing space, if the prospect of reparations were not to be completely lost along with Germany itself.
This Bradbury plan, against which the French are now working out a counter-proposal – apparently with the intention of initiating the rehabilitation of German finances and the stabilization of the German currency by some means to be dictated to us from outside – was initially kept very secret, then became some of it is known, without us being sure of now knowing its entire content. He seems to be saying something about a stabilization of the market, about which details are missing, also about a reorganization of the reparations commission and its transfer to Berlin – the outlines of the plan are at least recognizable now and they are important enough for us.