Budget Juggled?

"SCANDALOUS REPORT OP PARKER GILBERT" shrieked a Berlin headline last week, when Agent General ol Reparations Seymour Parker Gilbert released his report on the first nine months of the third year of German reparations payments. Neutral observers found the report far from "scandalous," but instead meaty with facts, logical. They thought its measured language admirably typical of Mr. Gilbert, 34 but seasoned--a Baptist, a 1912 graduate of Rutgers College* and Harvard Law School, a U. S. Treasury "career man," and so conservative that he maintains a residence m the town of his birth: Bloomfield, N. J. Two Theses. Agent General Gilbert put forward last week in his 131-page printed report, two main theses: 1) That Germany can fulfill her Dawes Plan payments after the present (third) Reparations year quite as scrupulously as she has heretofore; 2) That the present German Finance Ministry (under reactionary Minister of Finance Herr Dr. Heinrich Koehler) is attempting to so juggle the German Federal Budget that a revision of the Dawes Plan will seem necessary. Criticism. Naturally Mr. Gilbert did not mention Dr. Koehler by name, but criticized the methods of his department sharply as follows: German budget estimates are unfortunately obscure in their method of stating transactions . . . lack clearness . . . [which is] both unnecessary and unfortunate. . . . The effect of all this procedure is to present the financial position of the Reich in a most artificial light. . . ." Having deplored these methods of German State accountancy, Mr Gilbert proceeded to point out expenditures in the German budget where he thought there ought to have been savings. He declared: "The budget estimates for 1927-28 carry total expenditures of 9,100,000,000 marks, as compared with 7,200,000,000 marks in 1924-25 an increase of 1,900,000,000 marks. . . . "The military and naval budget expenditures rose from 458,000,000 marks four years ago to 700,000,000 marks for the current year. . .

The problem of checking the rising tide of government expenditures has, in fact, become acute and requires the closest attention not merely from the standpoint of the Dawes plan, but in the interests of German economy as a whole "

Finally Mr. Gilbert stigmatized the German practice of transferring nearly one-third of the revenue at the Federal Treasury to the treasuries of the various German states for ultimate expenditure. These transfers, declared Agent General Gilbert, are too often made without adequate investigation of the needs of the states thus aided, and so lead to state extravagance

Bright Side. Mr. Gilbert, having delivered a reprimand, did not neglect to praise, wrote:

"Germany has made all the required payments . . . promptly when due, exactly in conformity with the agreed arrangements . . and deliveries and payments for the benefit of the creditor powers have gone forward regularly and without interfering with the stability of German exchange.

"If the German Government will take the normal precautions that are necessary in its own interest to safeguard the budget, there is no reason to believe from developments thus far that it will find real difficulty in maintaining the necessary balance between its revenues and expenditures, including, of course payments under the Dawes plan "

German Attitude. Since Seymour Parker Gilbert holds almost autocratic power in the field of Reparations, no German statesman dared to challenge his report last week; but at the Finance Ministry newsgatherers were guardedly informed The Government sees little opportunity of effecting the economies called for by the Agent General of Reparations."

*Now Rutgers University.