DEBT CLAIMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 199, 24 July 1931, Page 7

DEBT CLAIMS.

ANGLO-RUSSIAN NEGOTIATIONS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 22. Answering in the House of Commons a question on the work of the AngloRussian committees dealing with debts, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Hugh Dalton, said that Lord Gosclien, chairman of tlie committee, had reported the present state of these negotiations to the Foreign Secretary, who was greatly disappointed to find that so little progress had been made. The Soviet delegates did not yet appear to lrave submitted any proposals for settlement or even to have indicated what categories and ty.]>es of claims they were prepared to allow as ranking for settlement, and on what conditions. The work therefore had not yet progressed beyond the state of an exchange of information and explanations. Tlie Foreign Secretary had informed Lord Gosclien that he proposed to take an early opportunity to represent to the Soviet Ambassador the necessity of putting forward practical proposals if the negotiations were to he brouglrt to a successful conclusion.

In May it was stated that the AngloRussian debt negotiations had reached a deadlock, and on several recent occasions Mr Arthur Henderson has referred in the House of Commons to the disappointing results of the meetings. According to the Council of Foreign Bondholders, Russia’s external debt amounts to £925,000,000, of which £738,000,000 represents direct Government loans, and thy balance railway loans and other obligations. Russia issued Treasury bills to cover advances made by the Allied Powers during the war amounting to nearly £850,000,000, but the payment of interest was stopped in 1917, when Rusisa repudiated the whole of her obligations.