BRITISH WAR DEBT PAYMENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 47, 25 February 1929, Page 6

BRITISH WAR DEBT PAYMENTS

Commenting upon the fact that Great Britain in December completed the sixth year of her payments on her American war debt, and has .">('. more years in which still to pay. the "World" points out that Great Britain has'already turned over to the United States Treasury the' colossal sum of £192,800.000. "As £20.! 100.000 has been paid in casli before the signature of the agreement," the paper states, "the -irand total of her payments exceeds ten billion dollars, roughly onefourth of the original debt. Only about 1.3 per cent of these payments, however, have been applied to the principal of the debt, the rest representing interest. In consequence, the m-in-cipal has been reduced so far by only 3.2 per cent. The extinction of the debt is *thu.-." seen to be i slow process. It is difficult to visualise the real burden which these annuities impose upon the British people. The total payments during the current year amount to £2t>.Si)o.ooo. This" sum would, endow two great universities like Harvard and Yale, and would pay all the running expenses of the first seven American States listed alphabetically. When sacrifices are measured bv these standards, the absurdity of expecting such an arrangement to remain unchanged for the next half-century is readily manifest, and after l!»:>2 the present agreement calls for even heavier payments/'