The problems that we are facing will never end. As you see that one of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles was to pay the reparations. The country has to pay £6600 million without 10% of our industry and 15% of our agricultural land, and this was taken away by the Treaty as well. And have you hear what the French and the Belgians did. They are acting very inconsiderately, they also need to see that we are suffering from the effects of the World War I. We could not pay their installment in 1922, so the new president Ebert tried to negotiate concession from the Allies. however the French got out of patience. And just to take out the anger of the World War, the French and the Belgians invaded the Ruhr. And you want to know the worst part, the this act carried out by the French and the Belgians was legal. They took what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods. This results of the occupation of the Ruhr was disastrous . Then the government ordered the workers to carry out passive resistance, which meant that they went on a strike. This way the French had nothing to take with them. Instead the French acted harshly and ruthlessly killed over 100 workers and expelled over 100,000 protesters from the region. Not only it affected the people, it also affected the economy and caused the collapse of the German currency.
With no goods to trages, our government simply started to print money, which was quite easy as the debts were paid off in worthless marks, including war loans over £2,200 million. This was also great for the industrialist as they were also able to pay off their debts. However, this affected the economy a lot. People started to realise that the money was worthless. Instead of being paid weekly, workers are now being paid daily. The prices of goods have drastically rose. Our neighbours, next door are a prosperous middle class family and they found out that the money they kept in their bank account to buy a house, can’t even buy them a loaf of bread. And my grandfather was shocked when he heard that his monthly pension won’t even buy him a cup of coffee. Conditions here are getting really worse that I m am getting really worried. However, the new president Gustav Stresemann wa able to control the conditions a bit . He called off the passive resistance in Ruhr. He called for the worthless marks , which were burned and has been replaced by the new currency called the Rentenmark. He also has negotiated to receive American loans under the Dawes Plan. And he also has renegotiated the reparation amount.
I just hope that Germany recovers from this economic decline fast and retrieve its strong position back. I Hope you have a prosperous year and keep on working hard.
Yours Sincerely,
Shafaq Yaqoob.
