BRITAIN'S DEBT TO U.S.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 9

BRITAIN'S DEBT TO U.S.

PROSPECT OF AGREEMENT. REDUCED INTEREST RATES. AMORTISATION DEFERRED. By Telocraph.—Pre3B Association— Copyrieht. (Received 6.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. ' NEW YORK, Jan. 11. • Mr. K. D. McKellar (Republican), of Tennessee, in a speech in the Senate, demanded that full publicity be given the war debt negotiations. ".:He declared that Congress. never would sanction a change in the present funding law, until it knew what proposals had been made by the British Government. There should be a daily bulletin of the developments and negotiations. It was essential that the people should know what was proposed to be done. Negotiations behind closed doors would materially hinder any successful conclusion. Upon the heels of Mr. McKellar's speech, states the Washington correspondent of the New York Times, the American Debt Funding Commission, announced that the British Commission had submitted a detailed statement of Britain's financial position, showjng the tax measures to which* the British nation had resorted in its [".effort to balance the National Budget*- The statement declared that the British people were more hoavily taxed than the American, a.nd that additional severe tax burdens to meet heavy interest and principal payments on the war debts to the United States at the present time would inflict great hardships on the British workingman and his family. It also pointed out that in order to balance Abe Budget for 1922-23 the British Government probably would be forced to suspend payments to the National Sinking Fund for reduction of the public debt, which would be a. step without precedent save in time of war. The burden of taxation amounted ,< to more than £20 per capita, and liquors, tobacco, cigars, and various luxury taxes were 14 times greater than before the war. .-

The correspondent adds that the two commissions to-day gave particular attention to interest payments and amortisation provisions which may be included in a tentative proposal which will bo submitted to Congress. - Mr. A. W. Mellow, Secretary of the Treasury, expressed tho belief that agreement probably would be reached within less than a- week.

The correspondent states that the agreement probably will provide for low interest rates for the present and. abandonment of proposals for amortisation through the establishment of a sinking fund until some time further. ,