Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1933. STILL ROOM FOR HOPE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 10

Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1933. STILL ROOM FOR HOPE

The hopeful but cautious state' ment in which on Thursday' last Mr. Mac Donald reported to the House of Commons the results of hie mission to Washington was followed next day by a broadcast speech in which the most conspicuous item replaced hope by fear. In both speeches he was careful to emphasise the provisional and tentative character of tho conclusions reached in his talks with Pre&ident Roosevelt, but in the second ho laid special stress oh their definite agreement about a single point. Tho World Conference will fail, said Mr. Mac Donald, unless tho dobts are settled ns early as possible—cortainly before the end of the Conference. President Koosevelt and myself are agreed upon that. It was indeed a lamentable confess sion that the only result of the discussion of the war debts problem at these frank and friendly convcrsa* lions was an agreement that unless an agreement was arrived at prpmptly it would wreck the Economic Conference. Add to this that the Conference was to meet on June 12, that die war debts were not included in its agenda, and that failure to settle the issue before the 15th when the pcxt.. instalments were due and would not be paid was likely to shatter the Conference before it ha 3 got to work! The outlook was obviously darker since America's abandonment of the gold standard on the eve of Mr. Mac Donald's arrival in New York threatened to frustrate his mission. , But in .the speech reported yesterday Mr. Mac Donald himself has supplied the antidote to the anxiety created by his broadcast statement. The effect of a failure to settle jjie war debts promptly is stated in a less sweeping, fashion than before. There is, says Mr. Mac Donald, complete unanimity of opinion that the International Economic Conference couW not be fully successful unless the debt difficulty ha/t been removed. But he supplied more positive grounds for hope than this toningdown of the devastating results of failure. The cost of failure will indeed be terrible enough at "the best, but it is clear that appreciation of the point is stimulating the principal parties to fresh efforts, and that a final settlement of the war debts is what they have in view. It had never been contemplated, said Mr. Mac Donald, that the war debts should come before the Economic Conference^ and he had definitely slated the intention to exclude them in answer to a.question in the House last week, though Mr. Forbes's statement published yesterday suggested that the New Zealand Government was not aware of the fact. But Mr. Mac Donald tells us, and a similar statement was being made in Washington by the American Secretary of State at the same time, that it is proposed to carry on the war debt negotiations ."concurrently with the Economic Conference and on parallel lines." The question arises, however, what can these concurrent negotiations be expected to achieve if they are limited to the three days' interval between the opening of the Conference and the due dale of the instalments? The Prime Minister's statement does not touch this point, but it certainly supplies no excuse for despair. He is working manfully for a settlement, and nothing less than "a complete and final settlement" will satisfy him., The settlement I am thinking of, hfl says—a final settlement—is going to take a little time. Ido not mean by that a longish time, but I- mean it literally. It is going to take just a little time. There are just thirty-one clear days to run before the Conference opens. Will that be "just a little time"? or will it be just a little less? If it is just a little less, will three days mere make up the difference? Mr. Mac Donald evidently fears that the addition will nbl he- quite enough, for he says that "June 15 is to be an awkward hurdle." If by that time the negotiations have made such progress as to bring a settlement within sight, that hurdle may not. prove insurmountable, but it will not be safe to place too much reliance upon Congress, which after its long spell of good behaviour may be as eager to take a slap at tho President as at Britain and France. But Mr. Mac Donald's language, though carefully restrained, is nevertheless the language of hope. He evidently sees a reasonable chance of a final settlement, subject possibly to the reservation of some consequential details, being achieved or substantially assured, within the four or five weeks (

that remain. In the face of difficulties perhaps not more discouraging than those which confronted him at Lausanne Mr. Mac Donald declines to j despair of the Republic, and his confidence may again be rewarded iiii the same way. Mr. Mac Donald's request that nothing would be said that would mi crease the difficulties of the war debt negotiations "so as to make the hurdle impossible to clear" was re-, spected by the House, and two other points in his speech were remarkably well received. Sir Austen Chamberlain, who is not given to superlatives, said ' that ,tlio best news from America for many years was the, decision that if a satisfactory Disarmament Convention wer.o reached, the United States would participate in consultative pacts for tho greater socurity of nations. While Mr. Mac Donald fully deserves the high compliment paid to him by Sir Austen, the at least equal honour due to President Roosevelt and Mr. Norman Davis must not be overlooked. Another of the Prime Minister's points was put by Sir Samuel Hoare into competition with that . praised by Sir Austen Chamberlain. ' , The Anglo-American common ■ aim to raise price commodities was, he said, tho most hopeful feature which had arisen in three year 3. This was far more likely to succeed since tho United States had gone off gold. The meaning of the three years' limitation we cannot profess to understand, but it may be due to an error in transmission. The last word in the debate fell to Sir John Simon, whom it is a pleasure to find, at hi 3 post again after his recent illness. In a single telling sentence he summed up "the highly valuable results" of Mr. Mac Donald's mission.' It was a groat thing that President Roosevelt and the British Government had agreed upon the groat objectives of disarmament, increased socurity, cutting trade harriers, and the stabilisation of currencies. If a settlement of the war debts can be added to this great list Mr. Mac Donald's triumph will be complete. ,