MORATORIUM MAY BE NEGOTED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 142, 17 June 1931, Page 1

MORATORIUM MAY BE NEGOTED.

NATIONS POSSIBLES .L SUSPEND ALL EBTS. (United Press Assn.- trie Telegraph —Cop f (Received June l^^^^H.) LONL^^^Ke Coincident upon the New York of Sir George thinks that things are a two years’ and perhaps a war debts moratorium, suggestion from Berlin that the wrman Ambassadors from France and Italy, who are now conferring with the Chancellor, after which they will return to their posts in Paris and Rome, will open negotiations for an all-round suspension of Reparations till 1934-35, in the hope of averting a request for a Young Plan moratorium in August. The latter contingency largely depends upon the result of Mr H. L. Stimson’s visit to Italy.

Various indications are accumulating to show that President Hoover is giving sympathetic consideration to the proposition to reduce, if not cancel, war debts owed by European nations to America provided that the European nations agrees -to. reduce armaments, said a message from Washington recentlj’. Unquestionably, this matter, first mentioned prominently by Senator Borah, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has since been discussed in White House councils, and there have been some informal interchanges on the subject between Washington and London, if not between Washington and Paris also, the object being for each Government to sound out the other’s position. The utmost secrecy is preserved, and whether the idea of linking war debt revision with disarmament originated with Senator Borah or in London, is matter for speculation. It is stated unofficially here that it is very doubtful whether the world disarmament conference, fixed for February next year, can be held unless there is a change of attitude in Europe. This is expected to be one of the questions uppermost in the mind of the Secretary of State (Mr Stimson) when he goes to Europe in the near future.

Senator Borah is definitely in favour of a revision of German reparations. In a statement he said:— “ Revision seems to me to be economically expedient and fundamentally just. Nothing is to be gained by anyone by forcing Germany into a complete economic breakdown.

“The United States should cancel her war debts, but with a reservation that Europe must reduce her armaments in a large way. “ But if European countries refused to comply with this condition there is no good reason why American taxpayers should be called oh to throw their money into that cesspool.”