The failure of the Conferenee led to a heavy fall
in the Garman exchange. On Wednesday the pound sterling was equal to 4,550 marks. The mark, that was worth a shilling, can now be bought at about twenty a penny. If, as some still believe, the rulers of Germany are deliberately promoting the devaluation of the mark in order to -wipe out all their war-liabflities, it is a highly dangerous game. For the continued fall of the mark makes the Budget derisory, upsets all business contracts, and induces work- people to press for an increase of wages every month or every week. Even if Dr. Wirth, the Chancellor, had not indignantly repudiated the suggestion in an interview on Wednesday, it would seem almost incredible that Germany should deliberately increase her own difficulties to this extent in order to pose as an insolvent pauper. Germany has over us the great a,dv'antage that all her people are hard at work.
