for once that it was not being fleeced. Just as the cure for competition based on depreciated currency is to let the public have the goods as fast as the foreigner will turn them out and leave the foreign worker to find out that he is being swindled, as he very quickly would. Whereas what happened was that industry squealed, naturally wanting to have things arranged as comfortably as possible for itself, and the Government perpetrated the farce of the Safeguarding of Industry Act which was only redeemed by futility from being really mischievous.
And then there arose the curious belief that Germany was not only beating our trade by debasing the mark, but would surely be still more effective as a trade competitor if she had to pay an indemnity to the victorious Allies. So much so that it would pay England, as most likely to be affected by German competition, not to receive anything at all by way of indemnity from Germany. Fears of the consequences of the indemnity payment had been expressed by some of our leading statesmen even before the Reparation figure dictated by the Allies in their Memorandum of May 1921 had been agreed to by the Germans. After that, and during the very short time in which it was believed that Germany was really going
