AUSTRIAN DEBT TO BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22415, 31 May 1938, Page 9

AUSTRIAN DEBT TO BRITAIN

QUESTION OF PAYMENT DISCUSSED RECOGNITION OF LIABILITY REFUSED BY GERMANY (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received May 30, 8.50 p.m.) LONDON, May 30. The Berlin correspondent ol “The Times” says that the economic adviser to the British Government (Sir Frederick Leith-Ross) after negotiations with the German Ministry of Economics disclosed that Germany had refused in. principle to recognise the guaranteed Austrian loans as German obligations. Tl. suggested that something might be paid, but no offer was as yet forthcoming. The Germans mentioned several precedents for their attitude, including Britain not accepting the responsibility for Boer debts after the South African war, but it can be pointed out that Germany did not regard the anschluss as a conquest. “NO DESIRE FOR WAR” HERR HITLER GRANTS INTERVIEW UNDERSTANDING WITH BRITAIN AND U.S. WELCOMED LONDON, May 29. The “Sunday Graphic” gives prominence to an interview which Herr Hitler gave before the Czechoslovakian crisis last week. “It is a lie to say that I want war, when 40 minutes after the outbreak bombers would have done more damage than could be repaired in half a century,” he declared. “We know the utter futility and calamity of war. Mankind’s task is to make peace impregnable. “Germany is ready to participate to the fullest extent in this matter. I should rejoice in a British-German-American understanding, which I believe would be decisive for world peace. We will be most careful what we sign, but when we have signed we will honour our signature regardless of the cost.” Herr Hitler added: “The colonial question is most important and has a heavy bearing on the fate of peace. Negotiations on this question must move quickly ahead of the unfolding of human necessity if force is not to take the matter in hand.”