REPARATIONS AND DEBTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21543, 15 January 1932, Page 7

REPARATIONS AND DEBTS

THE LAUSANNE CONFERENCE BRITAIN’S PREPARATIONS (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, January 13. It is understood that plans for the Lausanne Conference on reparations were discussed at a meeting of Cabinet Ministers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Neville Chamberlain), who attended, M r as in possession of a report that he had received from Sir Frederick Leith Ross, of the Treasury. SIR WALTER LAYTON’S SPEECH. “WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN,” LONDON, January 13. (Received Jan. 14, at 7 p.in.) Sir Walter Layton, editor of the Economist, speaking at the Eighty Club, said that war debts and the gold situation were not exclusively responsible for the crisis, which did not start in Germany. The debt situation was the main factor in converting the great recurrent depression into something that was threatening the entire economic system. We could not rebuild if the present situation was repeated. A provisional settlement was useless, and so was a moratorium. If all debts were wiped out Germany would have only £500,000,000 of internal debt, or £8 per capita; France £2,300,000,000, or £56 per capita; Britain £6,000,000,000, or £l5O 1 per capita; the United States £3,200,000,000, or £27 per capita. Germany could clearly pay something, and a plan could be devised which would not be greatly harmful. There should be an agreement now to enable immediate reconstruction, and it would be highly desirable to wipe out the whole thing, thus removing the lingering source of irritation, the sense of war psychology. If it were done by agreement it would pay a thousandfold, and France should take the lead. There could be no economic reconstruction without a Franco-German agreement, to which the consent of Hitlerites would be necessary. If everybody tried to balance trade by stopping imports they would succeed in having everything balanced at zero.

ITALIAN PRESS ARTICLE. REFERENCES TO AMERICA. MILAN, January 14. (Received Jan. 14, at 9 p.m.) Following the publication of the article on reparations to which attention has been directed throughout the world, the newspaper II Popolo dTtalia prints an address to America, saying that America will not wish to be compared to Shylock demanding his pound of flesh from a debtor. The paper argues that it is to her interest that America should make a gesture of renunciation. •"