BURDEN OF DEBTS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 377, 19 March 1932, Page 1

BURDEN OF DEBTS.

People who Got Money Must Pay for War. OFFICIAL AMERICAN ACTION. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. WASHINGTON, March 17. A statement asserting that there was no foundation for a suggestion that the Administration intended to reopen negotiations for a debt settlement was made by the State Department on Thursday. This followed a Democratic attack in the Senate against the revision of the British war debt, which brought a denial from Senator Reed on behalf of President Hoover that the subject had even been under consideration. The question had never been discussed with the Ambassador to Britain, Mr Andrew Mellon, who is about to sail for London, said Senator Reed: Debts should not be reduced or forgiven. Because America had already been generous, she should not be asked to go further. Congress had decided the matter plainly, he said, and it had been practically unanimously agreed by both Houses that the burden of war debts must rest where it properly belonged—on the people who got the money. Senator Glass, a Democrat, who was Secretary of the Treasury when some of the war loans were made, sharply disagreed with both Democratic and Republican speakers. He suggested that it might very soon become an advantage to the United States to modify, or even cancel, the debts. “Suppose European nations tell us in plain terms that they are unable to pay, are you going to accept their statement or are you going to war?” he asked. “I am convinced that President Hoover sees the circumstances and that Senator Reed does not accurately represent the views of President.”