SOLVING DEBT PROBLEM.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20788, 23 February 1933, Page 9

SOLVING DEBT PROBLEM.

PRESIDENT APPOINTS LIEUTENANTS. DISCUSSIONS BEGUN. PLAN FOR PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE. IL'SITEP TRUSS ASSOCIATION—EI ELECTJUO TELEQEArH—COPMIOHT.) (Received February 22, 8.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 21. Information was received from New York to-day that Mr F. 35. Roosevelt (President-elect) had announced the appointment of Senator Cordell Hull, of Tennessee, as Secretary of State, and William Woodin, a leading industrialist, as Secretary of the Treasury in the coming Cabinet. Together with the conferences with the British and French Ambassadors, this has led economic experts to predict that the groundwork is being surveyed with a view to reaching important decisions on world economic questions, concurrent with the debt negotiations. A veteran member of Congress, Mr Hull is recognised as .•& expert on tax and tariff matters. He has always adhered to low tariff policies, and is thus qualified to negotiate the complicated tariff problems arising out of tho Ottawa Conference, with a view to implementing Mr Roosevelt's thesis of the revival of world trade through tariff adjustments. Mr Woodin accepted the Treasury post after Senator Carter Glass had declined it. According" to present indications, a conference is to be held at Washington, which' will include only principal nations interested in international trade. This will be a preliminary to the JVorld Economic Conference. As envisaged here, it will in effect constitute, using League of Nations parlance, the "council" of the general conference, while the meeting of delegates from 67 countries later will be the "assembly." Republican Co-operation. The present preparations are being undertaken with the full consent of President Hoover and the Administration. Government departments are compiling the data which will be used. It is understood that during this week Sir Ronald Lindsay and M. Paul Claudel will begin conversations with Mr Hull and other Roosevelt leaders. Thus the coming Administration will actually be functioning before the inauguration. The explanation of this unusual procedure is not forthcoming. A rumour that the crisis in the Far Mast might bo responsible for tho desire to work with all possible speed is generally discounted. The most logical supposition is that Mr Roosevelt considers that the world situation requires haste, and wishes to set tho machinery in operation as quickly as possible in readiness for tho special session of Congress, the date of which is tentatively fixed for April. It is believed that if tentative agreements regarding world financial matters can be formulated, . the decisions reached at Washington can be elaborated and extended among the nations represented at tho world conference. It is understood that Mr Roosevelt formulated a' plan, after he learned that Great Britain could make no economic commitments in connexion with' debts before she knew what the other countries would dp. Therefore, for the moment, he subordinated the debt problem to tho larger issues of world economics. Importance of Ottawa, The importance with which Mr Roosevelt regards the Ottawa agreements is indicated by his action in calling the Canadian Minister to the United Btates, Mr W. D. Herridge, to a conference. Tho participants in to-day's conference were extremelv reticent. According to New York reports they admitted only that they had discussed world economics. Mr Roosevelt said: "Everything is in the preliminary stage, but everything is getting on well." The inclusion of M. Claudel has resulted in the conclusion that it was considered that nothing effective could be accomplished without France. It marks the resumption of negotiations which were broken following French default on the December debt payments. [Senator Hull, who is 62 years old, practised for some time as a lawyer in Tennessee, later being appointed to a judgeship. He was a member of Congress as early as 1907, and since then has been a prominent member of the Democratic organisation. Mr William Hartman Woodin, a Pennsylvania manufacturer, is a director of many large American companies, including the General Motors Corporation.] HOPES FOR SUCCESS. SIR JOHN SIMON OPTIMISTIC ABOUT OUTCOME. (»ttiTian oTinciAi. wireless.) (Received February 22, 7.20 p.m.) RUGBY, February 21. Referring to war debts question during a speech at the Pilgrims' Society dinner in London, Sir John Simon (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) said that* the British Government was fortunate to have been able to make contact with the President-elect (Mr F. D. Roosevelt) before he assumed office on March 4. The British Ambassador to Washington (Sir Ronald Lindsay) had returned after a visit to London in full possession of the views of the Government, and had just reported that he had had a useful interview with Mr Roosevelt in New York on Monday. The conversations at present were in a wholly preliminary stage, and were of an entirely general character, but it wag not too soon to say that they believed that by a frank and intimate interchange of views between tho British Government and ike United States Government over the whole field oi current economic problems, the way could best be prepared for the effort which the countries ,of the world' must make together to assist in promoting world recovery. The English people, who had experienced the full effect of this widespread depression, had the liveliest sympathy with th® difficulties facing the

American people, who were passing through a timo of extreme trial. It was only by mutual understanding and general co-operation that relief could be found for a stricken world. CONFERENCE WITH FRENCH AMBASSADOR. MR ROOSEVELT'S ACTION. NEW YORK, February 21. Mr F. D. Roosevelt (President-elect) conferred with the French Ambassador, M. Paul Claudel, on Tuesday, which, following Monday's conference with Sir Ronald Lindsay (British Ambassador), is taken to indicate an early World Economic Conference. Before receiving M. Claudel Mr Roosevelt gathered about him a formidable group of economic and diplomatic authorities, headed by Mr Bernard Barucli, the New York financier, and Professor Raymond Moley. the war debts expert. These advisers had withdrawn when M. Claudel arrived.