MULTIPLIED WAR DEBTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 December 1932, Page 2

MULTIPLIED WAR DEBTS

STRIKING FIGURES Tim position of Grout Britain supplies striking figures not merely of the magniture of the war debt payments as they were figured at the time when the payment schedules were agreed, but of the great increase in their burden under the conditions that obtain to-day, says the “Economist.” Thus, whereas the annual dollar payment fixed in our case was equal in 1923 to about £33 millians sterlings, rising in 1932-33 to £3B millions sterling, the latter figure has now increased 1o nearly 56 millions sterling, owing to the fall in the pound. Moreover," as prices have also fallen heavily in the meantime, this 56 millions is equal in terms of goods to nearly £9O millions in the currency of 1923—a figure equal to' three-quarters of the maximum total German annuity under the Dawes Plan ! Even more striking is the extent to which the shrinkage of trade, in which tim American tariff has undoubtedly played an important role, has made it more difficult to pay in goods. _ Consider these figures: —The first' annuity which wo paid to America in 1923 was £33 millions sterling; in that year we exported to the United Stales £6l millions’ worth of goods; the annuity was therefore equivalent to little more than six months’ exports. The annuity which wo are duo to pay the United States in the ensuing vear is £56 millions; our exports in 1931 were £l7 millions, and in 1932 will bo less; the annual annuity to-day therefore represents three to four years’ exports.