A REPUDIATION

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1938, Page 5

A REPUDIATION

AUSTRIA’S DEBTS

£8,300,000 DUE TO BRITAIN.

(United Press Association—By Electric T elegraph—Copyright;.

BERLIN, June 16

In a speech at Bremen, the Secretary to the Ministry for National Economy (Herr Walther Funk) said:—“ln view of international practice, Germany cannot be expected to assume responsibility for Austria’s debts. Political debts cannot he converted into commercial debts because private creditors have been replaced by the State.” Herr Funk recalled that Britain had refused to recognise the debts of the' Boer Republic after the Boer War, the United States had repudiated the debts of the Southern States after the Civil War, and Fra nee had not paid her debts to Madagascar. Money had been lent to Austria merely for the purpose of bolstering up her political system. Although Germany would honour her commercial debts, she regarded political debts as detrimental to trade and industry.

"Germany cannot tolerate the posftion of her foreign loans,”, he declared. "An arrangement must be made by which the unjustifiable interest of 5$ to 7 per cent must be reduced to a more normal level.”

Herr Funk added that Nazi Germany had never regarded the Dawes and Young loans as private loans. Herr Funk’s speech is regarded as a formal official repudiaton of Austrian debts, of which £8,000,000 is owing to British investors. British interests also hold £16,500.000 at 7 per cent in the Dawes loan and £11,000,000 at 5* per cent in the Young loan.