INTERNATIONAL INDEBTEDNESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16074, 10 March 1923, Page 5

INTERNATIONAL INDEBTEDNESS.

LORD BALFOUR MAKES STATEMENT.

BRITAIN’S DOUBLE BURDEN.

OSlec- Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Australian and N Z. Cable Association.)

(Received March 10, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, March 9.

Lord Balfour, in the House of Lords, called attention' to misunderstandings arising from his note of August last, dealing with international indebtedness. Ho had not taken part in the subsequent controversies, thinking that as time passed and changes occurred the matter might be allowed to rpst, but as tho American Ambassador had declared the Balfour note misleading and had requested the Government explicitly to remove the impression the, note caused, he thought continued silence would,, be misunderstood. The passage Mr. Harvey complained of stated that the United States insisted that though the Allies were to spend money America was only prepared to lend on Britain’s security. Lord Balfour 'said he could not find anything that had passed was misleading or obscure, Britain had suggested that as she hitherto had borne the burden of financing the Allies, America, which had just entered the war, should relieve Britain of further financing the Allies. If the United States had adopted the plan there would have been no American loan to Britain and many controversies would have been avoided, but tho United States refused to lend except to Britain, throwing a double burden upon us, which wo were still carrying. If United States’ opinion adhered to the view that wartime deals between partners must be regarded as separate, isolated undertakings, America’s uncontestable rights could not have boon enforced in a manner less likely to impair happy Anglo-American relations than they had been recently.