THE WAR DEBT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 50, 28 August 1922, Page 7

THE WAR DEBT

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

OFFER WHICH WAS REJECTED.

(DKITtS fRISS ASSOCUnOK.—COHRrOBT.)

(AUBTWUUT • NEW ZIJkUN> CAJtI ASEOCMTI«R.) LONDON, 25th August.

. British official circles, commenting on the Washington announcement relating to the British debt, point out th*t after America's entry into the war Britain borrowed from the United States 879 millions sterling, and lent the other Allies 897 '■ millions. But for the Allies' demands for assistance, a loan from American- would not have been necessary. - It should not be forgotten they add, that early in 1918 Britain. pressed the United States to relieve her of the responsibility for financing the -Allies, offering in return to finance her own expenditure in America, but the United States would not accept.

[A Washington message*' published on. Saturday reported that Mr. A. W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, had issued a statement contradicting the intimation contained in Lord Balfoor's recent Note that the United States required Britain to guarantee a return of the money loaned to the other Allies during the war. Mr. Mellon declared that the associated and other Allies borTowed on their own account, and he produced memorandum to show that this was clear to Britain.] „ ■