In an interview at The Hague, where he was representing the Ger man League of Nations Society* at the meeting of the International Confederation of League of Nations Societies, Count von Bernstorff (German Ambassador to the U. S. before and during the first two and a half years of the War) said that the League idea was growing in Germany and that its machinery would be necessary to unravel the reparations tangle.
He proposed an American loan: ” Germany and France will never come to any agreement without the League or some third person to mediate. As I have already stated, my belief is that only an American loan to Germany on lines similar to those of the Austrian loan, which has proved such a success, will ever solve the intricate problem with which Germany is faced as the result of the War. … If it means good business, I am convinced that the United States will be ready to make this loan, but it must be on some business basis.”
* Nations not members of the League of Nations who are members of the International Federation of League of Nations Societies: Russia, Turkey, Germany, U. S. The object of these societies is to further the cause of the League in their respective countries.
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