Lord Passfield, who replied for the Government, said that the
decision taken at The Hague meant that au private German properties still unliquidated were now available for the German Government to hand back to the rightful owners. He thought that what Lord Buck- master had demanded had in fact been done. We hope that the scheme will work out as easily and as satisfactorily for the dispossessed owners as Lord Passfield optimistically thinks, but the necessity under which Germans are placed to .recover their property through their own Government causes us some misgiving. The German Government may repeat what they have said before, that values are not what they were and that the dispossessed. are owed only what the German Government is in a position to give them. Legally, we believe, Lord Passfield is on firm ground, but we should prefer a policy of indulgence or, as some would say, of generosity.
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