A LEAD BY BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20924, 14 July 1931, Page 8

A LEAD BY BRITAIN.

The announcement of the British Government's decision to refrain from claiming payment of tho German annuity due to-morrow comes at an opportune moment. It should do much to restore hope of a fully satisfactory cmcrgenco from the difficulties besetting at present the final arrangements for the war-debts moratorium. Prance has named conditions that are displeasing to Germany, and as these are political in nature they will not come within the purview of the representative Treasury experts, who meet later in the week. They cannot be internationally discussed until the subsequent meeting of Ministers, and yet they bear directly on the scheme of postponement and may prejudice its operation. If the British lead is followed, as it should be, by similar action on the- part of other creditor nations, there will be smooth progress by the experts and an assurance of concord when the Ministers meet. In making its announcement to the Bank for International Settlements, the British Government has spoken for the whole Empire. This it is entitled to do, as the British share of the annuities is entered as a single payment, although the various Dominions have each an allotted percentage. But there is a moral as well as a financial solidarity in the arrangement, for the Dominions, while not unanimous in their opinions on the related question of payment of their war debts to Britain, are at one in their welcome of the principle of tho moratorium and the desirability of its prompt application to reparation payments and foreign debts. Their Governments, by association with the British Government in this timfely announcement, are rightly assisting to make the most of the international opportunity presented in the Hoover proposals.