Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1933. AMERICA AND WAR DEBTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 256, 10 August 1933, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1933. AMERICA AND WAR DEBTS.

The United States Secretary for Agriculture spoke fearlessly to the farmers of his country when he told them that if they desired to obtain a world market for their produce they would have to adopt a different attitude in regard to war debts. If they insisted on payment of debts, he said, they must abandon hope, for a long time, of a healthy export trade in farm produce. They could not have their cake and eat it too. This pronouncement, is in distinct contrast to utterances voiced from time to time by President Roosevelt and others, and it is to be hoped that it augurs a more reasonable frame of mind on the part iof the Administration. It may be that President Roosevelt, having been hard pressed by the farming section of his supporters, realises that his position has become untenable and that those who persist in a course that would be disastrous must be warned of the dangers that lie ahead. As Mr Neville Chamberlain pointed out in the House of Commons some time ago, the interests of the creditor are as much \ at stake as are those of the debtor and adjustment on an equitable basis is essential. America seeks expansion of trade; can it be profitably conducted with nations impoverished by the payment of tribute to America? As to what Britain can give in the way of tariff concessions, Mr Chamberlain emphatically limited these to a reciprocal arrangement in a limited field, and in this connection rightly rejected the demand that the decisions at Ottawa shall be revised to suit the United States. There was a hope that the European nations, by bravely and honestly facing the war-debt problem, would become morally entitled, in the eyes of America, to some measure of relief from their chief creditor across the seas. It would be a shameful crime for America to push Europe back into the economic morass, yet American politicians are ready to do this rather than forego the chance they have of wringing commercial advantage from the plight of the debtor countries. Mr Roosevelt is as bad as any. As Mr Wallace said, there is need for more realistic thinking about these matters of tariffs and foreign debts than the Americans have hitherto given them. This necessity should have been borne home to the Americans before this, because the various aspects of the problem have been discussed by many authorities on many occasions. For instance, the Preparatory Commission of. Experts that drew up the agenda for the World Economic Conference, in certain sound and moderately-worded observations about the essentials for success expressed the considered opinion that failing some settlement of the difficult problem of war debts there remained an insuperable barrier to economic and financial reconstruction.