REPARATIONS AND WAR DEBTS.

Mt Benger Mail, 16 September 1931, Page 1

REPARATIONS AND WAR DEBTS.

ADVOCATES OF CANCELLATION. Williamslown (Mass.), Aug. 2U. if nothing is done next year to settle the problems of war debts and reparations, it will no longer matter “which nation owes what to another. ’' The question will be “purely academic” then. in these ominous terms Professor Jacob Viner prophesied to the Institute of Polities. He raised, incidentally, this question;— Would Britain “scale down” the debt that Australia owes her if the fall in prices induced the United States to “scale down” the debt owed by Britain f lie held that debt cancellation might be good, and asserted that America’s high tariff violated the agreement with Europe on war debts by making it difficult for nations to raise the money they owed. Professor T. E. Gregory, who visited Australia with Sir Otto Niemeyer, declared that the British position was clear. It amounted to entire elimination o'r reparations and war debts. “These,” he added, “have been a curse ami a nuisance ever since the end of the war. “Any reasonable approach to a solution,” he said, “must start with the assumption that the Young Plan is dead, because of the change in the world level of prices since the plan was put into operation.” At a Canadian Club lunch in Vancouver the Bishop of London (Dr Ingram), who is on vacation, made a plea for complete cancellation of war debts. 4 .