Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9, 1933. THE WAR DEBTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18162, 9 August 1933, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9, 1933. THE WAR DEBTS

Once again the war debts. Those of us who are plagued with mortgages know only too well how. rapidly the half-yearly demands come round, and so in the international sphere it seems that the Juno settlement has no sooner been reached than December is at hand. President Roosevelt dropped a hint last week that it would soon be here, and intimated that this time the United States would not be prepared to accept payment in silver. Will Britain, pay in gold? She has probably got sufficient laid by, but it is required for the purposes of the Equalisation account, to prevent fluctuations' in currency exchange and consequent handicaps to commerce. The United States’ policy of inflation was deliberately, adopted not 1 only to 'boost internal prices, but to put the dollar in .s'ufch relation to other currencies that America would be able to outbid her rivals in trade. Whilst admitting the generosity of President Roosevelt in the June settlement, it- is easy to understand the difficulty in which ho finds himself with respect to the payment in December. Although his inflation policy has brought a wave of industrial activity in the United States it cannot be said that prosperity has been achieved in such a measure as to justify national benevolence towards the overseas debtors. The bettering conditions of world commerce strengthen, the belief of the average American elector that Europe is well able to and should pay. There is, however, a growing feeling throughout the States that tho world would be better off, and America with tho rest, if thip perpetual argument about “war debts could be eliminated and somo permanent settlement effected. The conversations shortly to be held at Washington, at the invitation of President Roosevelt, may result in somo such happy conclusion to a controversy that has been going on all too long, leading to much embitterment. It is gratifying to learn that there is quite a strong body of public opinion in the United States which regards insistence on payment of tho debts as a mistake. Some even question whether-there are any war debts at all. Senator Tydlngs, of Maryland, replying the other day to a speech by Senator Robinson, of Indiana, drew this interesting parallel. “Let us suppose/’ ho said, “that Nation X, out beyond the Pacific and our own country are engaged in war, and after we have been, fighting for three years, and perhaps we will assume wo are getting tho worst of it, Great Britain comes into the war because of some incident; "but she has not an army ready. While our troops are entrenched on the fields of Kansas, dying by hundreds of thousands before the British army can bo j transported over hero, we borrow j from Great Britain not money, because the money did not go over to England or Branco or Italy, but wo borrowed credit of ten billions for clothing and shells anil,, munitions with which to fight the British war as well as the American war. If that wore tho case I wonder if the senator from Indiana would not bo on the floor of the Senate at this hour saying ‘Think of it! Our men shod their blood upon the fields of Kansas in the war with Nation X, Iteld tho battle lines with their breasts bared while their women and children were saddened at home through .one long year while Great , Britain loaned us ten billions worth, of fpo.ol and cloth-

ing and so on in the same war, and now after it is all over she asks ns to forget the loss of onr men,/ she asks only to pay the bond, to pay 100 cents on the dollar.’ Mr. President, the Senator from Indiana would say, ‘ Has that' nation no heart ? Has:,it no conscience? Has it no humanity? When our boys were holding the front in Kansas in this war with Nation X, dying by the hundred thousands, they were only getting ready over there, and when they contributed food and munitions and clothing, now when it is all over we have to pay the full 100 cents on the dollar.’ ” It is obvious that if this viewpoint, put so effectively not by a British subject but by an American, was adopted by the British Government, it would have justification in claiming that there had never been any war debts; that the credit contributed by the Americans in lieu of men was merely a part of the common Allied policy of pooling all their resources to beat the Germans. Each put in what it had. Tim French contributed most, of the men for the first two years. Then the British took over, but. before they were able to do this they contributed cash and, credit. Then the Americans came on and contributed first credit and then men. The idea, of course, is not a new one, but it is the first time it has been presented in tho American Senate, and as a Canadian contemporary 'was quick to point out, if adopted, it would give the British the moral basis they seek for withholding further payments on an. impossible war debt. There are other moral bases, as, for example, the fact that President Hoover encouraged tho British and the French to let Germany off, leaving the impression that the United States would reciprocate when it came to paying her claims. Great Britain., wo feel confident, will never allow herself to be classed as a defaulter. She has, however, the strongest moral grounds supporting her claim that she should not be required to pay. These have been set forth on more than one occasion, with unassailable logic, in memoranda by the British Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer but they failed to move the heart of the American public, which was still clamorous for its pound of flesh. Perhaps by the time fixed for the discussion at Washington arrives tho people wall have realised how much tho restoration of America’s prosperity, which tho nation is now so earnestly striving for, depends upon war debt settlement, without which thero can be no stabilisation of exchanges, no lowering of tariff walls, no expansion of overseas trade, no building up of confidence, so vital to national stability; no certainty about anything.