The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1932. THE WAR DEBT CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Issue 17, 21 January 1932, Page 6

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

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1932. THE WAR DEBT CRISIS.

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

Tlic international conference on Reparations is to open at Lausanne next Monday, but recent developments seem to have robbed it of all serious importance. It is reported that Britain and France have agreed to the renewal of Germany's moratorium for six or even twelve months after it expires in July, and no doubt the other Powers will acquiesce. It is further assumed that America's debtors will combine to ask for a similar concession from the United States in regard to their own annual payments. In that case, the only effect of the Lausanne Conference will be to defer to a future date the final solution of the war debt problem; and, unsatisfactory as this may be, this postponement-—especially in view of the coming elections in Germany, France and the United States —seems inevitable. In view of all this, a great deal of interest attaches to the announcement of America's intentions, just issued semi-officially by Mr. Stimson, who is to supersede General Dawes as head of the American delegation to the coining disarmament confercncc at Geneva. Mr. Stimson naturally points out that, in accordance with the line of policy which the Americans have consistently followed, they will continue to regard the reparations question as a purely European problem that does not directly concern them. At the same time, the United States Government is prepared to give careful attention to any concrete plan proposed for further postponing war debt payments, or, for that matter, any other practicable scheme "to meet the present emergency." This is encouraging, so far as it goes; but it should bo observed that what the Americans contemplate is not the final cancellation of reparations or war debts, but only some temporary expedient to tide the European nations over their present difficulties, and, presumably, facilitate payment in the future. It is true that some of the leading American newspapers appear to have reconciled themselves to the conviction that Germany cannot pay any more reparations, and that she might bo better off if she defaulted now than if she prolonged her agonies. But the "New York Times" points out that even if Germany cannot pay to-day, it is absurd to predict that she will never be "financial" again; and this is to some extent the standpoint from which France views the situation. France is painfully familiar with Germany's practice of parading insolvency as a pretext for evading her obligations, and M. Laval, the French Premier, has just declared that "France will not accept proposals which arc inadequate to solve the crisis and which strike at her essential interests and rights." The French Government owes a duty to its people, and France, though anxious to promote the world's welfare, "will sacrifice no crcdit without a corresponding remission of her own debts." This last statement reminds us once more that, whatever the Americans may think, Europe regards the reparations question as inextricably involved in the war debts question, and it is impossible to keep these two problems apart or to solve them separately.