The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1931. A GENEROUS CONCESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 149, 26 June 1931, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1931. A GENEROUS CONCESSION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

The British Government has decided, in the words of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to extend to the Dominions and India the same concessions, in regard to war debts, as Mr. Hoover has proposed to foreigners. This lightening of the burden of charges on waxdebt for the current year will be of great material importance to the Dominions, but its value is immensely enhanced by the financial conditions that prevail just now at Home. Mr. Snowden estimates the total loss to his Budget at £11,000,000, and in view of the difficulties which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is now facing, it is hard to exaggerate the generosity that this offer displays. It is impossible for the Dominions to make any direct or adequate return, but it is to be hoped that Britain's willingness to alleviate our financial troubles, at such heavy cost to herself, will quicken the Dominions' sense of responsibility to the Motherland, and that their gratitude will express itself in more vigorous and successful efforts to support British industries and to afford British goods the widest possible scope in our markets, in preference to all foreign products and commodities.

It is natural under the circumstances to consider precisely the amount of financial benefit that "will accrue to New Zealand through Britain's open-handed generosity. Our annual payments to Britain on account of Avar debt; amount to about £.1,652,000, and we receive approximately £330,000 as our share of German reparations. But we will not get the benefit of the whole amount remitted by Britain during this financial year. For our half-yearly instalment of interest was due on June 1, and we still owe Britain £826,000 for this current year closing March 31 next. It is possible that we may not get our next reparation payment till after that date, in which case we can count upon a saving of only £496,000 for 1931-2 through the concession that Britain is prepared to make. Of course, the postponement of portion of the relief thus afforded will simplify our financial problems for 1932.-3. But for this year all we can be certain of gaining is, roughly, £500,000, and this, of course, is contingent on the acceptance of the conditions laid down -by Mr. Hoover when submitting his moratorium to the Powers. But in any case, if this scheme is adopted we will secure a very substantial addition to the public revenue, with the knowledge that Britain, in spite of her own grievous financial burdens, is willing and anxious to extend "aid and comfort" to the utmost of her ability, to the Dominions and the other members of the Empire.