ALLIED WAR DEBTS

Southland Times, Issue 21220, 22 October 1930, Page 5

ALLIED WAR DEBTS

PAYMENTS TO AMERICA

MORATORIUM BELIEVED POSSIBLE ATTITUDE OF BRITAIN (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright) (Rec. 7.0 p.m.) London, October 20. Considerable interest has been aroused here by a report from the Washington correspondent of The Times that the United States Treasury and banking leaders are discussing a draft plan for a possible moratorium on Allied debt payments ,to the United States. The only comment here is that Britain will continue to repay her debts without the slightest suggestion of revising her undertakings, and the initiative must come from the United States, but latterly it has been' significantly observed in London that the United States’ vast gold reserves, coupled with falling commodity prices, may compel her to examine the position. It is stated that Dr Schacht, president of the Reichsbank, met the Secretary of State, Mr H. L. Stimson, and the latter meets Mr Hoover and Mr A. W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. The correspondent believes that Germany will be forced to declare a moratorium on her conditional reparation payments.

The Daily Telegraph says that it is not inconceivable -that American banking opinion may have arrived at the conclusion that the accumulation of gold from Europe, including between £80,000,000 and £90,000,000 per year in respect of war debt payments, is preventing the impoverished Continent from buying American goods. Hence it is largely responsible for growing unemployment in the United States. Ihis situation would be eased if the further import of gold amounting to £150,000,000 during the next two years could be checked. The Financial Times says the best economists see clearly the inevitability of a rearrangement of war and reparation debts. They stand in the way of world recovery and must bulk larger as time passes. A message from Paris states that there is no doubt there that Germany intends to claim a moratorium, in which event the question will arise of France’s payments to America.',

The Berlin newspaper Germania says the question as to how long Germany can continue to transfer annuities is being eagerly ventilated.