FRENCH BONDS

Southland Times, Issue 21198, 26 September 1930, Page 7

FRENCH BONDS

PROPOSED REDEMPTION

REPAYMENT ON GOLD BASIS BRITISH HOLDERS’ CLAIMS • —■ (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright ’ Paris, September 24. It is learned from official sources that the French Government contemplates large scale financial operations as soon as the conditions arc favourable, It is believed that it may comprise the. redemption of part or the whole of the 1915 5 per cent, rentes. It has belatedly leaked out that in this connection the Government in July received a note from Mr Philip Snowden backing the claims of British holders of rentes issued during the war amounting to 1,641,000,000 frances that they should be paid on a gold basis instead of with the stabilized paper francs, whiph are worth 2d compared with lOd before the war. It is recalled that. France unyieldingly insisted on her borrowers repaying on a gold basis, yet she refused the same right to British holders.

It is admitted on behalf of the British holders of rentes that they have no legal claim, but it is urged that their strong moral claim is accentuated by the reflection that had Britain insisted on full payments of the French war debt, France would not now be the largest gold-holding country in Europe with no unemployment, while Britain would not be under such a staggering income tax and would-not have such a huge number of unemployed.