BRITAIN'S PRESTIGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21404, 31 January 1933, Page 5

BRITAIN'S PRESTIGE

AMERICAN SENTIMENT DEBT PAYMENT REACTION Sentiment in favour of Great Britain is probably stronger in the United States to-day than it has ever been before, according to Mr. L. S. Abrahams, K.C., of Sydney, who is a passenger to Australia by the Monterey, which passed through Auckland yesterday. "Not so very long ago the average American was inclined to regard Britain and everything British with something like suspicion,'' Mr. Abrahams said. "Now Great Britain is regarded more favourably than any other nation in the world." The payment by Great Bi'itain of the December war debt instalment had influenced the American mind very considerably, Mr. Abrahams said. It was a huge sum of money, apparently spent on nothing, but more than its value had been returned in increased prestige for Britain. Previously America had set her face persistently against war debt reductions, but the payment by Great Britain, in face of huge difficulties and default by other countries, had given rise to a different outlook. Prominent Americans were finding it safe to speak in public in favour of modifying British war debts, although feeling was particularly bitter against France.

There was amplfl proof that Americans were losing some of that insularity which in more than one way had been a barrier to world progress. One could frequently hear Americans referring to the debt owing to Britain for years by the Southern States of the Union and comparing this default, with the manner in which Britain had honoured her obligatioris. There was, too, a greater belief in the beneficial influence on world affairs that would result from a union of the Englishspeaking peoples.