STRAIGHT TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 7

STRAIGHT TALK.

HINT TO AMERICA banker and debts. Britain Should Pay No More Under Present Plan. PAY in goods not gold. (United T.A.-Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 19. At a meeting of Barclay's Bank, Mr. F- C. Goodenough, chairman, said that he thought Britain's payment to America in further sums of gold might be dismissed as impracticable. The only alternative was payment in goods.

"If America desires payment she must take it this way and make payment possible by a readjustment of tariffs. America will sooner or later have to choose between adjusting her economic policy and forgiving the whole, or part, of the debts due to her. Britain's return to the gold standard is impossible until she can feel sure that conditions are such that she and other countries will not again be forced to suspend it."

During his outspoken remarks on war debts, JMx. Goodenough declared that there must be some finality on the question, which is so vitally affecting the present and future conditions of the whole world. He expressed the belief that the City of London would regard It as useless if the suggestion that, pending a satisfactory settlement to - all debts, the instalments should continue to be paid, no matter how prolonged the discussions might be. Full Discussion Urged. Great Britain, he said, should not pay any further instalment until the whole matter had been discussed, and an agree-' ment for a final settlement reached. Remarking on Britain's economic policy, Mr. Goodenough said that it had been due to the inability of other countries to arrest the decrease of trade since the war that a change in British policy had becom& necessary, but the fundamental principle that a creditor nation must permit'its debtors a reasonable chance to discharge their liabilities remained unchanged. Regarding the industrial situation, he suggested that it might be possible to hold an early conference with the Dominions with the object of arriving at means to alleviate the great evil of unemployment.