Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/254

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likely to get from Germany for some years to come can be paid by her through the sale of goods to America, or to other countries from which America takes goods. If the time comes when our share of what she pays is more than we need for the service of our debt to America, then we shall have to lend to other countries that want loans the proceeds of the goods that Germany exports on our account. For example Germany can build railways in Russia, or if Russia has not returned within the economic community of nations, in Hungary, Rumania, Brazil or anywhere else; and Russia or whoever it may be will owe to us the railway which Germany will have built on our account and so we shall rebuild part of our fabric of investment, so much of which had to be pulled down during the war and exchanged for things that were more pressingly needed.

Some of our manufacturers will, like true Britons, gnash their teeth at the thought of anybody but themselves selling anything to anybody; but let me remind them once more that they will have a big enough pull, in the taxation laid on Germany and escaped by us through the indemnity, to enable them to beat Germany when they want to; to say nothing of the fact that they seem to be able to hold