BRITAIN’S DEBTORS

Evening Star, Issue 19001, 24 July 1925, Page 5

BRITAIN’S DEBTORS

FRANCE' OPENING NEGOTIATTONS. Press Association—By Telegraplv-CopyrisM PARIS, July 23. It IS announced that throe experts of Iho Ministry of Finance wiU depart for London on Monday to begin debt negotiations. M. Oailla.ix (Minister of Finance) will follow later. Hie English credit at the end of June was £010,607,<'90. —A. and N.Z. Cable. TAKING DEBTS “FOR- WHAT * ’THEY ARE WORTH.” “Almost everybody now admits that the chances oi collecting the se%eu billions due America from her Continental associates in the war are virtually nil. Not one of the nine debtor nations is in a position to pay anything now or in the reasonably near future,” savs the 1 New Republic.' “France "is the richest of them all, but it is only by a, tremendous effort) that she makes a. show of balancing her domestic budget—a, deceptive show, when it comes to that. What good can come, then, ol inviting them to discuss the question of their debts to America? It is conceivable_ that snob a discussion may help to 11 x the attention of Europe and America on the more practical aspect of international relations. “The Ministers of Finance may for a time become headliners, while the Ministers of Defence, Offence, and intrigue and Revenge may be thrust- into the small print of Hie back pages. This would be a desirable, if intangible, result. As to the substance of tho negotiations, settlements on paper may bo made, like those with Poland and Finland. Wo may take them for what they aro worth. “ Was it understood in America at the time when Hio loans were granted that collections on them would be virtually impossible? Not at all, Americans expected that the war would end in peiye. “The menace of German militarism was to 1)0 destroyed, and the other nations, assured of safety, were to be free to devote their fiscal resources to tho works of peace instead of military preparations. A stable peace was expected to result in the lowering of the obstacles to trade and communication that bold most of Europe to a low level of efficiency. “If these dreams had been realised it would have been possible for the debtor nations to pay. They were not realised. Europe is maintaining more men under arms than ever before in time of pence. The fear of war rests more ominously on Europe than it did in 1913. The barriers to intercourse and trade have been raised, not lowered. “ For this state of affairs no country is wholly to blame; all countries, including the United States, share the responsibility. The financial result of it all, however, is tliat our European debtors have neither the ability nor the desire to pay. Fortunately we are making up onr Budgets independently of any expectations of payment.”