CRISIS IN NEGOTIATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 138, 14 June 1933, Page 11

CRISIS IN NEGOTIATIONS

BRITAIN'S WAR DEBT TO AMERICA CONTINUOUS TENSION IN LONDON PRESIDENT SEEKS APPEAL TO PEOPLE

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) ' (Received June 14, 1 p.m.) LONDON, June 13. The "Sun" representative says the debt situation is changing hourly. It has provided Whitehall with thirty hours of con« tinous tension comparable with the wartime crisis of 1914. Three* -Cabinet meetings'and several Cabinet sub-committee meetings .succeeded each other within eighteen hours, with Ministers and officials rushing to telephones and motoring between the Economic Conference and Downing Street. A mere handful were aware of President Roosevelt's momentous decision, the details of which Mr. Chamberlain is drafting into a statement in a locked room behind the Conference lobby. The House of Commons was packed, everyone awaiting Mr. Chamberlain's deliverance, announced for 5.50 this afternoon. The entire Cabinet, excepting Mr. Mac Donald and Mr. Chamberlain, were on the front bench until 5.45 p.m., when Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Runciman, and Mr. Thomas were suddenly called behind the Speaker's, chair. , • " The atmosphere became electric as it was realised that a hitch had' occurred. It is believed that President Roosevelt suddenly changed his mind, and that he desired to avoid the necessity of immediately facing Congress, and therefore wished to postpone the statement until June 15. ' ; The Cabinet met hurriedly. Ministers were in a quandary, more especially since President Roosevelt's original decision had caused such relief. This news was now common property, and it" was impossible to withhold a statement of such magnitude which was no longer a Cabinet secret. Ministers sat a few minutes, after iwhich the Atlantic telephone and cables were again buzzing to urge the desirability of an immediate statement. It was'then announced that Mr. Chamberlain would speak at 10 o'clock tonight. Mr. Chamberlain appeared at 10.10 p.m.,' and further startled the House by announcing that the details could not yet be disclosed. '■■'■' ■ , The "Sun" learned that Cabinet's decision to postpone a statement until June 14 was due to President Roosevelt's desire immediately to follow his announcement in America with a personal broadcast over the Continent, thus appealing to the populace over the heads of Congress. It is understood that he will reiterate, as in his dispatch to Britain, his consistent support for a practical debt settlement, and will propose as part of an Anglo-American understanding immediate negotiations, possibly in London, in order to secure a final and equitable discharge.

"'■ An earlier cable message received this morning .said: President Eoosevelt is accepting a token payment of 10,000,000 dollars. It is -mi- ' derstood that the President accepted' Britain's war debt token Offer on his own responsibility, and has docided to face Congress. ; .: