WAR DEBTS AND REPARATIONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2668, 18 December 1928, Page 4

WAR DEBTS AND REPARATIONS.

A message from London last week stated that Britain has made a further payment of £18,840,000 to the _ United States on account of war debts owing to that country. Up to the present the total payments by Britain to the United States amount to £192,476,000, but only £29,400,000 is on account of the principal, the balance being for interest. The amount now outstanding is £890,600,000. These figures are interesting today in view of the fact that the question of the amount Germany should pay in reparations is again under discussion. The Dawes Committee of 1924 did not solve the reparations problem. It only provided a solution of immediate difficulties by fixing the amount that Germany should pay annually. The duty of the Dawes Commission was to find out the amount Germany was capable of paying every year. This amount was fixed for four years, and as that period will shortly expire, the time has arrived for a further consideration of the amounts to be paid every year by Germany. The feeling amongst the European Powers is that reparations and war debts should be treated together. A has been made that Germany should pay over the whole the war debts. The sum of £1,750,000,000 has been mentioned as the final amount, and this Germany would realise by the sale of her railways and the issuing of industrial bonds. Germany is anxious to reach finality in this matter, for it would mean the evacuation of the Rhineland, while the Allies are anxious to get rid of their . obligations to the United States. Britain has reiterated her declaration that she would require only sufficient reparations to meet her war debts to the United States. France, the next biggest debtor, is very anxious to have the negotiations finalised, as are all the other debtor countries. Naturally Germany asks for a big reduction in the reparations if she is going to make a cash settlement. This may prove the stumbling block, for the United States has not received the proposal with much enth'isiasm.