Britain’s Prestige Higher Than Ever

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7032, 16 December 1932, Page 7

Britain’s Prestige Higher Than Ever

American Comment Condemns France Notable Debate in Commons United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Keceived Thursday, Midnight. ! LONDON, Dec. 15. Though the Commons were not permitted by a division to .egister their opinion on the debts question, the debate on the question was both impressive and exciting. The House was crowded. The American and all other foreign ambassadors were present. If a vote had been taken it would have been overwhelmingly in favour of the Government as it was realised that British prestige was bound again as a result of to-morrow s payment. The Daily Telegraph describes the debate as a plain and unanswerable vindication of Britain s debt policy. The Times, in an editorial, says the debate showed that the Government’s decision to pay is interpreted also as the unanimous wish of the Commons which shared the Government’s opinion that anything savouring of unilateral repudiation would be a deplorable mistake. Sir Robert Horne’s speech should finally dispose or the mischievous fairy tale that Mr. Baldwin riveted the burden of the American debt to Britain’s neck when he went to Washington in 1923. Though Mr. Lloyd George derided the Commons as “gibbering in a corner,” the debate proved that the Mother of Parliaments” has no reason to fear comparison with either the French Chamber of Deputies or the United States Congress. Four Repudiations BRITAIN’S COMMANDING PotflTlOrt. Received Thursday, 10.40 p.m. WASHINGTON, Dec. 14. The war debt situation to-night moved out of the realm of things academic into the field of hard reality, but the confusion and uncertainty nevertheless seem somehow to have been intensified. The American people and the American Government cannot be said to be anything like satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations leading up to the December 15 payments. Four of the eleven countries due to make payments have announced defaults—France, Belgium, Hungary, and to-night Poland—while Esthonia’s action is still uncertain. Italy paid to-day while five pay to-morrow the 124,934,000 dollars due. That any action will be suggested by the President against the defaulters is dismissed as out of the question. All talk of retaliatory measures is without foundation. It seems to be indicated that the impulse towards the clarification of the serious and obviously unhappy situation will come with Mr. Hoover’s impending message to Congress relative to the entire question. The usually well-informed chief Washington correspondent of the New York Times telegraphs to-night: “The message will review the state of world opinion relative to the debts on a factual basis and urge Congress to empower the executive statesmen of the United States in close co-operation with Britain to approach a re-survey of the question for all the nations involved without regard to the acknowledged legal lights of the United States to collect war debts. The Parliaments of the defaulting nations reflect the popular foreign belief that there is no moral bond. This is just as pronounced as the belief in Congress to the contrary. “In the view of the Administration if the debt issue settles down to a tug-of-war among the Parliaments a host of international hostilities will be engendered, meaning much hardship to the world. The ameliorating agency of statesmanship must not be disregarded. “By paying their debt instalments Italy and particularly Britain are in a commanding position, and their plea for review and revision is now expected to carry extra weight.” The correspondent adds that Congress has been confident that all the nations would pay, “that they were bluffing and the entire attempt to obtain a revision was selfish propaganda. The French and Belgian action has brought about a more reflective mood on the part of many influential members. Some of them welcome the action of the defaulting nations as advancing (he date of solution of the entire question by at least six months.” The correspondent concludes with a special examination of the British position, pointing out that the President feels she was bound to maintain a united front with France as a result of the reparations agreement. “Now that the united front has been broken by the French default, the President is represented as feeling that the ideal time has come for the United States and Britain to work out the world’s economic griefs in which debts play a strong part at least economically.