Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, DEC. 16, 1937. THE WAR DEBTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, DEC. 16, 1937. THE WAR DEBTS.

In June and December of each year the nations in debt to the United States through the Great War receive a formal notice of their indebtedness. But only Finland pays the instalment due, a sum quite negligible in comparison Avith Britain’s. The revival of the question again this month is interesting in view of the negotiations between Great Britain ' and the 1 United States for a. trade -agreement* into which the question of the war debts must very largely enter. In the meantime Great Britain has informed Washington that she will be willing to* reopen the discussion on the subject whenever circumstances are such as to warrant the hope of a satisfactory result being reached. For more than three years the United States has received a similar intimation from Whitehall, but has shown no disposition to create a situation leading to a satisfactory settlement. It has been emphasised on several occasions that all the British Government desires is an equitable settlement in the light of the differeht circumstances now prevailing. Five years ago Britain made the last full payment of £19,000,000 in gold when the Hoover Moratorium terminated. Then in the following June, on the eve of the Woild Economic and Monetary Conference, another crisis was precipitated by the war debts issue, but President, Roosevelt allayed it by accepting a token payment from Britain of ten million dollars in silver, leaving the balance in suspense to await a final settlement. In this manner default was avoided. Six months later Britain made a similar payment, but in June of 1934 Congress had passed legislation obliging Great Britain to pay the full instalment and all past instalments to avoid being held in default. ..This she rightfully refused to do in view of all the circumstances attendant on the issue of the war debts, and declared that no further payments would be made until the agreements had been revised. This position has not been altered since then. Great Britain made enormous sacrifices to maintain her war debt, obligations, but the conditions imposed by the United States led to severe economic disorders which finally prevented payment. While she has paid, according to a statement made when payments were suspended, a total sum of 2,025,000,000 dollars on account of principal and interest, chiefly the latter, other nations then had TOO million dollars out of nearly 6,000 million dollars due under their obligations. The deficiency British taxpayers were called upon to bear between the amount received for reparations and pavments of war debts at June 30, 1931, when the Hoover Moratorium came into fotce, was no less than £133,000,000. On the

other hand France received from reparations £163,000,000 more than was paid to her creditors. The reparations issue can never be revived, and being vitally interwoven with the war debts the primary consideration of Great Britain is revision on equitable lines.