ALLIES' DEBT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1734, 9 February 1921, Page 5

ALLIES' DEBT.

"CLEAN SLATE" SUGGESTION SENSATION IN UNITED STATES. ANTI-BRITISH FEELING STIRRED. [By Electric Cable —Copyright.) [Au3t. and N.Z. Cablo Association.] LONDON, February 7. "The Times" correspondent at New York says that Mr Austen Chamberlain's statement with reference to the cancellation of the whole international debt of the Allies came as a great surprise to the public, and has caused a great political sensation. It has stirred up all the anti-British, German and Irish elements in Congress, and throughout the country. Treasury officials fear that it is designed to create the impression that the Allies are suffering an undue financial burden through the United States. The Treasury officials argue that if the Allies collect the German indemnities they can easily pay the United States. They alsd express resentment that Washington was ignored over the Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Island of Yap mandates. [Mr Austen Chamberlain, speaking at Birmingham, said he would have preferred that at the end of the war the whole international debt of the Allies and associated Powers had been wiped off, enabling all to commence with a clean slate. There was no proposal for the settlement of the international debt among the Allies and associated Powers, whether total or partial remission, and to which Britain was not prepared to bo U party. We had made such proposals, but they were not acceptable to America, and it would be beneath our dignity to make them again and render our motives liable to misconception. We sought no international advantage for ourselves, but we had proposed a solution by which we should have forgone larger claims than would have been remitted to us. We proposed it in the interests of good relations among the peoples and for the restoration of international trade. Our great external debt was due to obligations undertaken on behalf of our Allies.] NO AGREEMENT REACHED. ■ * WASHINGTON, February 7. Secretary Houston to-day repudiated the report that the United States' indebtedness would be cancelled. Senator Mondel, leader of the House, said an agreement had not yet been reached.