Sunday, 5 January 1930

The Hague: 

At the Second Reparations Conference, the second topic to cause a stir (after France’s insistence on the right to invade Germany as collateral for war debts) is the separate payment deal struck by the U.S. and Germany (see Dec. 28, 1929).  The U.S. deal is very different from what France has in mind: it doesn’t call for any invasions of Germany.  But the U.S. places no other collateral on Germany either – an idea the European allies worry is too lenient, and that Germany may request from them too.  France in particular worries what will happen if an extreme nationalist government should take power in Germany. 

Meanwhile Hungary announces that it will not pay more than 10 million gold francs annually, up until 1943, due to losses of land and goods after the World War.  Hungary says it lost 72% of its territory after the war, and that state property worth 3.5 billion gold francs went to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and 2.6 billion gold francs worth of property were taken by the Romanian army when it occupied Hungary after the war.  Italy reportedly supports Hungary on this.