The German Imperial finances look more difficult the more they
are examined. On Tuesday they were discussed by the Budget Committee of the Reichstag, and the Times corre- spondent says that the Imperial Debt, which amounts to over £200,000,000, requires this year over £7,250,000 for its service. We note that the cost of German South-West Africa for 1906 has just been announced, and will exceed the Estimates by about £1,500,000. At the end of the discussion the Committee authorised the issue of Treasury bonds to the value of £23,750,000, instead of to the value of B17,500,000, which was the original estimate. Herr Sydow, the new Imperial Minister of Finance, advised the Committee not to be sanguine of .reform. The fact is that reform raises directly the delicate questions of the relations of all the German States to Prussia, and Ministers prefer that that problem should sleep, even though the conduct of Imperial finance remains wasteful and cumbrous. An interesting proposal was made that the £6,000,000 in gold which is kept in the Julius Tower at Spandau should be withdrawn. The papers of Wednesday summarise a long interview with Prince Billow which was published in the Novo° Vi.entya. Prince Billow declared that Germany had not inspired the Austrian scheme for a railway in the Novi Bazar district. The German Government knew nothing of it till the moment. when it was announced at St. Petersburg. Germany had no intention of impeding reform in the Balkans. . The German Ambassador at Constantinople had certainly suggested amendments in the proposed judicial reforms in Macedonia ; but these were improvements, and they had been unanimously accepted by the other Ambassadors. Germany supported the principle of unanimity ; but if her proposals were disapproved by Europe, she would leave the more interested Powers to take the initiative. Speaking of Persia,. Prince Billow said that Germany would avail herself of the'open door guaranteed by the Anglo-Russian Convention. She was not thinking of acquiring a port in the Persian Gulf, but she hoped that the Baghdad Railway would help Mesopotamia. The . recent attacks by the Russian Press on Germany were absolutely unjustifiable. In fact, Prince Billow made one of his characteristically amiable reviews of the affairs of the world.
