SCALING DOWN WAR DEBTS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25181, 12 May 1947, Page 3

SCALING DOWN WAR DEBTS

REACTION OF EGYPT AND INDIA LONDON, May a. “Egypt’s first response to the declaration by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dr. Hugh Dalton) that British debts accumulated through the prosecution of the war must be scaled down is as favourable as can be expected. and nothing encouraging haa come from India,” says the diplomatic correspondent of “The Times.” The correspondent points out that the British Government has itself scaled down war debts owed to Britain by Poland, Greece, and other countries, and now asks others to act in the same broad spirit. India and Egypt are two of Britain’s biggest creditors, adds the correspondent, and discussions with both countries are expected to begin in the next few weeks. The political correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says the British Government’s case is that Britain’s liabilities were incurred on behalf of all the United Nations, and if Britain had not shouldered her present burden neither Egypt, India, nor in the end, any of the United Nations, would have been saved from the aggressors.