FRENCH WAR DEBT

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 240, 11 May 1933, Page 6

FRENCH WAR DEBT

American Offer London, May 10. "America has tentatively offered to fund the French war debt at £300,000,000 ! instead of the £800,000,000 arranged for lin the Mellon-Berenger agreement of i 1926," says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail. "The proposal makes £72,000,000 in gold and £12,000,000 in silver payable immediately, and the remainder in instalments to the Bank of International Settlements. "The proposal is certain to be rejected," the paper says, "as it is emphasised the maximum amount recoverable from Germany under, the Lausanne agreement is £108,000,000, which France is willing to pay to America when it is received but not a pound more. "Though M. Herriot is urging the payment of the December instalment the Cabinet will refuse until a moratorium for the June payment is assured. Cabinet will also decline to make any payment in gold." Mr. Norman Davis, United States re-present-'dive, wh" is due at Geneva this week, is expected to produce definite proposals by the United States regarding security. Should these prove acceptable to France and there is a change in the attitude of Germany the Disarmament Conference may yet function with beneficial repercussions on the debts question and the World Economic Conference. The French Cabinet, with one eye on Washington and tiie other en Berlin, is merely marking time. It is rumoured that the United States has made a debt offer to France in which hor interest is cancelled and the debt reduced to capital alone, 30 per cent, to be paid immediately in gold and silver and the balance in annuities spread over 50 years; or it might be commercialised in the form of an international loan. TALKS DURING CONFERENCE Press Association. —Copyright. Washington, May 9. Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, said to-day that it was expected to carry on the war debt negotiations during the time of the World Economic Conference and to conduct them independently of its sessions.

Mr. Hull added that it had not been decided yet whether these negotiations would take place in London or through diplomatic channels in Washington. Asked whether this plan for a discussion of war debts simultaneously with the conference would not require special powers from congress Mr. Hull said that the negotiations could be conducted without such a resolution, though in that case definite commitments could not be made.