The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1933. THE WAR DEBTS

Southland Times, Issue 22043, 16 June 1933, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1933. THE WAR DEBTS

The war debts discussion drags on. Recent events suggest that President Roosevelt really hoped to escape any discussion of war debts in conjunction with the World Economic Conference. Mr Cordell Hull, the leader of the American delegation and the Secretary of State in the United States, was obviously caught by surprise when Mr Ramsay MacDonald made direct reference to the war debts question, thus attracting it to the forefront of the discussions at the Conference. A long time ago the Americans announced authoritatively that war debts would not be on the agenda paper at the Conference, but the facts cannot be escaped. No agenda pqper can eliminate the influence of the war debts on the financial situation of the world, and it is really absurd to talk about the removal of barriers to trade while there continues in operation a process which involves Britain in the payment of heavy instalments to the United States while Germany and the other nations .• pay nothing. Britain’s offer to pay part of the instalment involves the postponement, not repudiation, but in the face of the repudiation adopted by the other debtors, in the face of the relief granted to Germany, there can be no idea of continuing these war debt payments, except as a means of penalizing the British Empire. It must be remembered, of course, that President Roosevelt would like to use the war debts for bargaining purposes. They were to be kept off the agenda paper so that the American delegation could present proposals and offer relief under the war debts as compensation for their adoption. The weakness of this method of approach is that most of the nations have already refused to pay, and some have been relieved of payment, and the . one nation which has paid, and which continues to pay under protest, has not recognized and does not recognize the moral obligation to enforce the war debts. As soon as America’s right to charge these moneys against the nations as debts is questioned, her right to use the debts as counters in the bargaining game is questioned. Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s speech was an astute move. It brought the war debts into 'the Conference over the agenda paper, and it now looks as if there will be a show down on the war debts issue before the Economic Conference disperses. President Roosevelt, calling for representatives to go from London to Washington, hopes to put off any decision until the Conference is out of the way, but he has already talked war debts with the British representatives, and he knows the British attitude. What does remain to be dealt with, and dealt with in the open, is the question of war debts in their relation to the economic position of the world. Britain’s appeal to the United States has not been a plea for charity, it is not the whine of a debtor trying to evade what he should pay. She has approached the United States as a creditor nation from the standpoint of another creditor nation, and has said, io effect: “Let us cancel these debts. I have been paying to you what I received from my debtors. Therefore, I stand to gain nothing by the cancellation. Let us remove this burden so that commerce may proceed with more vigour, and we will regain more than we lose by the revival of trade. On the other hand, I do not see that, if my debtors fail to pay me, why I should be compelled to continue paying you.” There will be no real revival of trade in the world unless the war debts are removed, and the great confidence behind the delegates to the World Economic Conference is that the stark, facts of the situatioh will compel the Americans to agree to a course of action which, had they adopted it some years ago, would have avoided much of the suffering to which they have been subjected in the last twelve months.