The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, JULY 6, 1931. THE MORATORIUM SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 157, 6 July 1931, Page 6

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

MONDAY, JULY 6, 1931. THE MORATORIUM SETTLEMENT.

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

The news that the French and American Governments have settled their differences in regard to the proposed Moratorium will be welcomed with satisfaction and relief throughout the world. It seems that Mr. Hoover has admitted the principle of France's claim on the "unconditional" reparation payments, and the most serious obstacle to adoption of the Moratorium is thus removed. Apparently so long as the Young Plan is not discarded or impaired, France is willing that her share of the year's reparations should be placed to Germany's credit in the Bank of International Settlement. There are certain minor difficulties to be got over, notably the question of France's payment of £25,000,000 to the guarantee fund if Germany should declare a moratorium. But though Mr. Siiowdcn is naturally anxious that Britain shall undertake no further responsibility in regard to reparations, France contends that in case of a oneyear moratorium arranged by the Powers for Germany's relief, the question of the guarantee will not arise, and this view is apparently accepted by the United States.

As to the future, the sudden and general rise in stocks and in market prices, as soon as ever Mr. Hoover's offer was announced, is a clear indication of the revival of public confidence and of industrial and commercial activity that the whole world will experience through even a temporary relief from the existing burden of war debt. But Mr. Hoover's Moratorium is only the first step in this direction. Already in the embassies at Washington plans are being discussed for a great "drive" to secure the reduction and ultimately the cancellation of all war debts. And when once this step has been taken, it i.< believed that an international conference can be convened to readjust the world's financial and economic burdens, to be followed by a combined effort to secure general disarmament, with a saving of at least £200,000,000 a year to the European Powers. It is certainly a most alluring programme, and even if such predictions err on the side of optimism, they reveal some of the possibilities actually latent in the plan for the temporary suspension of war debts by the one great creditor State which virtually holds the world's financial destinies in its own hands.