WAR DEBTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 130, 4 June 1934, Page 7

WAR DEBTS.

must be settled. drag on recovery. British Press on Roosevelt Message to Congress. , ♦ IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 11 a.m.) RUGBY, June 3. Within a few days the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Arill make a full statement in the House of Commons on the British Government's attitude towards the war debt question. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt's message to Congress is being carefully studied, and it is noted that there arc some points in it which arc in agreement with the British Government's views, particularly in its reference to the upsetting effect on trade of the debt question. x The terms of the message did not contain any suggestion for fresh action cither by Mr. Roosevelt or by Congress. Newspapers regret that neither the arguments of the British Notes of December, 1932, which on this side appeared irrefutable, nor the subsequent discussions seem to have had any effect •upon American opinion, and that at the moment it seems impossible to reconcile the British and American views. "The Times" rays: "On this side of the Atlantic there is a widespread conviction that from the beginning the war debt had not tlic same moral validity as an ordinary commercial transaction; that such validity as it had was destroyed when, by the Lausanne agreements negotiated on the United States initiative, Britain abandoned her claims on the war debt and reparation payments due to her; that the endeavour to carry out the 1923 funding settlement —under which Britain has already paid 1,406,000,000 dollars—has been largely responsible for the collapse of the international financial system, the economic, social and political consequences of which have been felt all over tlic world and not the least in America; that sucli endeavour, if renewed, will make impossible any levival of international trade, and, generally, that it is illogical for the United States to press lier debtors for payment so long as her tariff and shipping policy make it impossible for them to pay in goods the services which were the original basis of the debt." Token Payment Suggested. "The Times" adds: "There seems nothing for it at the moment but to endeavour to keep the question open by some payment on account, not large enough seriously to dislocate exchange, and to continue to press upon creditors for final settlement by agreement." The "Manchester Guardian" says tlie gap between the American and European points of view is still so wide that there seems little hope of gaining anything by keeping up the pretence any longer, and it asks: "Has not the time come when the only way to force a realistic settlement is to cease to pay? The "Daily Telegraph" urges that the time has come for a disclosure of the suggestions made by Sir Frederick Leith-Ross at the last unfruitful discussion and of the counter proposals offered by the American State Department in order that the public may know_ the •width of the gap and whether it is bridgeable. Satirical New York Writer. A message from New York states that there is generally little or no editorial comment on Mr. Roosevelt's message. Even the "New York Times" confines itself to the non-committal observation that the message leaves everything much as it was, and that Mr. Roosevelt has not been able to indicate a single step that might lead out of the muddle. On the other hand, the "World Telegram," speaking for the • powerful Scripps-Howard_ chain of 20 newspapci s, publishes a very direct leading article. It says: "War debts now have value only as trouble makers." Rather satirically it continues: "It has "been necessary for Mr. Roosevelt to add to the words on war debts, which, if laid end to end, would carry the dispute to the farthest reaches of the stratosphere and dump it there, where it belongs. The claims are good, but they are not worth anything." The article draws attention to America's own broken pledge to pay in gold, and concludes: "These debts are worth nothing, even for disarmament bargaining, as intimated in Mr. Roosevelt's message, since even the United States has embarked on a vast armaments race."