The Hawera Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1933. CHANGING AMERICAN OPINION

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 30 January 1933, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1933. CHANGING AMERICAN OPINION

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihama, Opunalce, Normanby, Okaiawa, Elthain, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Wlienuaknra. Waver,ley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Eraser Road and Ararata.

The reception in the United' States ot the masterly British War Debt Note, in which, as the London “Observer” says, the record, philosophy and temper of the British nations, were all embodied, was on the whole sympathetic, and every day that, has since passed must have brought to the .minds of the unsympathetic the truth of the logic therein contained. The loss by a new deal, Britain told America, was nothing in the scale by comparison with the Joss of weal-til and human misery caused by the present struggle to .maintain the war debt settlement. The United States, with .111 million unemployed, is experiencing a full share of that misery, and.the tribulations are largely the re-

suit of the loss of her European markets which her debt and tariff policies have entailed. -The Wall Street “Journal” put the position very pointedly when it declared: “What England means to. our purchasing power can be seen by comparing the £40,000,000 of exports in the past nine months with £64,000,000 in the same period a year ago, £98,000,000 two years ago, and £118,000,000 three years ago. A prosperous England is worth more to us than all she owes us. Shall we hold to the doctrine of making her pay even though we lose in the end?” Responsible papers like the “New York Times” and “New York Evening Post” argue convincingly that the United States cannot expect Europe to pay her debts when Congress will not let them ship goods into the country and private investors will no- longer lend Europe the money to pay them with. Professor J. B. Jacks, of Oxford, who recently returned from a nine months’ tour of the United States, during which he conversed frankly about the debts with men and women of many types, 'thus records his impressions: “That while instructed opinion is predominantly in favour of revision, and frequently of cancellation, there is a mass of uninstrueted opinion, enormous in volume, quite otherwise minded. To this type of mind the debts owed by foreign nations present themselves simply as so. much potential wealth possessed by America, a huge addition to her resources, the relinquishing of which would be an intolerable sacrifice.” A Canadian observer declares that .many intelligent Americans are fully advised of the fact that 'the debtor nations cannot indefinitely go on paying as at present required. They realise that the attempt to make Europe pay would probably harm the United States as well as the debtors. But they know equally well that there is little sentiment for debt remission among the plain citizens, especially in the great- Middle-West—the. .political heart of America. So,me of these politicians are hoping that the European nations will default and then they can shrug their shoulders and go to theii constituents saying: “We did what we could to make them pay, but they defaulted on us and there is nothing much we can do about it.” President Hoover proposed a debt agency to excfliange views with foreign Governments, but this proposal was sabotaged by Congress, and it now remains for the incoming President to frame some tangible proposals to moot the situation. There is a special interest for Americans and Englishmen to-day in the words of Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s Secretary of State, who, at the end of the 18th century had,-to deal with a similar situation in which the roles of creditor and debtor were reversed. America then pleaded for consideration from England, advancing as a cause of her delay in repayment, the “British commercial regulations” which “lessened our means of payment” by prohibiting the expo.rt of American produce to British Dominions and excluding exports from England by “prohibitory duties.” “If the means of payment are taken away by the creditor himself,” said Jefferson, “he ought not in conscience to complain of a mere retardation of bis debt which is the effect of his own act.” If the President-Elect of modern America develops the vision, character and courage of his namesake there may bo some hope of the United States being led back to the original viewpoint of Jefferson.