The Southland Times. PUBLIUSHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1929. THE COOL AMERICANS

Southland Times, Issue 20772, 13 May 1929, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLIUSHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1929. THE COOL AMERICANS

Now the importance of the Balfour Note is being realized, the seriousness of Mr Snowden's break in the House of Commons will be understood. Mr Owen Young’s proposals in connection with the Reparations are dead. With a sublime indifference to the position of his own country, which directly and indirectly secures the bulk of the German payments, Mr Young put forward a scheme which relieved Germany at the expense of Britain and France, though the former suffered most. Britain’s attitude, since the departure, of Mr Lloyd George with his famous slogan about squeezing Germany until the pips squeaked, has been in favour of a general cancellation of debts with a corresponding reduction of Germany’s burden, but the United States has frowned on this plan because it involved her as a creditor nation. She has relieved Germany of some claims, though not of all of them, but the little she did in that direction she could well afford because she was being so richly paid by her late allies. In every discussion she has been careful to declare that reparations and war debts must be kept separate. The reason for this attitude is that she cannot afford to become involved in a war debt argument, because the moral issues are

against her. She made immense sums out of the war, and has taken up the role of a Shylock. Britain', after making concessions, has held to the position that she can make no more while the American debt remains where it is. The peculiar flavour of Mr Young’s proposals can be detected when this point is understood; but perhaps Mr Young saw in this move the'possibility of shaming his countrymen into some action. It is a strange fact that Americans seem to show more tenderness for the Germans than for the nations who were her allies in the war and who paid vast sums to her. If the United States went into the war on a moral issue, she should thank all the stars on her flag that the Allies had borne the brunt of the conflict and saved her heavy expenditure in treasure and lives. She alone made vast sums out of the war, and it is from America that real relief can come. If she can forget her money-bags and remember the moralities of the case she will see that further concessions to Germany should be made at her expense and not at the expense of her allies. Mr Hoover had experience in succouring the stricken people of Belgium—perhaps he will look at Europe from a different angle, and see more than the cold Coolidge could. There is not much hope. The coolness with which Mr Young made his proposal might stir those Americans who realize the position into which their country’s greed has pushed them, those people who have travelled in Europe and understand the general contempt for America as a result of her failure to understand the difference between gold and goodness. Britain has reaffirmed her adherence to the Balfour Note and no matter what party emerges victorious from the elections, the [xilicy it lays down, insofar as it refuses further concessions at the cost of the British taxpayer, will be upheld. Germany’s appeals should be made not to the Allies, but to Uncle Sam, seated on his piles of gold and preaching peace from the far side of a high tariff wall.