SECRET PARLEYS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 6

SECRET PARLEYS.

AUSTRALIA’S WAR DEBT. £89,000,000 MAY BE CANCELLED, (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 15. It will not occasion, great surprise in Australia if there is found to be some justification for a statement by Mr Eldridge, M.P., in Sydney last week-end that a simultaneous announcement by the Commonwealth and Imperial Governments would bring Australia relief from the payment of her war debt. Mr Eldridge said that he had been in communication with members of the Imperial Parliament on the question, and events had recently moved in a manner which suggested that his efforts and the efforts of others would be successful. He hoped that the people of Australia would soon receive a pleasant surprise. Australia’s war debt to Britain amounts to £89,000,000, and the annual interest and sinking fund charges total £5,000,000. According to the story of which a few of the members of Parliament claim to have knowledge Australia would have been relieved of this war debt last year but for the fact that provision for the payment of interest and sinking fund had been made in the last British Budget. One Federal member, a staunch supporter of Mr Scullin, said the other day that one of the Prime Minister’s chief regrets over the repudiation policy adopted by the Labour Government in New South Wales was that it had complicated the negotiations with the British Government. The negotiations so far have been carried out with the greatest secrecy, according to well-informed circles, and it is not expected here that Australia will receive preferential treatment over New Zealand and the other British dominions. Mr Scullin may fear the effect of the East Sydney by-election, but it does not seem likely that this Labour victory, which was expected, could influence a decision on such a vast issue. It is more likely that both Governments are waiting a convenient time to announce the farreaching decision. It is held here that the attitude of the British press towards Australia—sympathetic in the, extreme—indicates that a concession to Australia is likely.