WAR DEBTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 105, 4 May 1929, Page 7

WAR DEBTS

THE BALFOUR NOTE APPROVING A PRINCIPLE MOTION IN HOUSE OF LORDS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 2. Is the House of .Lulus, Lord uirkcuhead (conservative) called attention to the subject oi war debts and moved: “ liras this House approves the pirneip.'e ot the xfcufuur mumora.’idum.” He said that Lu Lad ranched the eonvktiuu that winch were related to his iiioiiuit required very earnest cuuwucratwM Iron the British Par in:**; cut aud iroia the I’arJmuieuLury Asstiubbct is other countries ju ti»e Balfour memorandum, which, v.us acclaimed as a masterly State dueun.c**l by every Li beial and Cousurvati'.'c Kien_ue’* •*! the Coalition Cabinet. lhe gesture was made for the usucc-’laiivu ut war debts, it was said. As Ibe oi the war, £2.000OU‘J,U‘J'J was owing tv us from our late Allies, whil-j car debt tv the United Stales was xvugiily The?*e figures icqi*-. red vety coasiuerabie revision. V» neii uhc talked or £2,Vt‘U,UOU,UtV it must be remembered that one third of mat sum Was owing tu us from Ifassm. That naiiou had repudiated completely that debt. ■Deieudiag il* CLutch.li’j cuiiunct of financial negotiations France and Italy, Lord Birkenhead declared that ilr Churchill hud mace the best terms conceivably obtainable. It was the object of ail ut us to make a generous debt settlement and at-the same time the measure of the concessions which we could make was limited by the reasonable economic and linancial resources of the uatious with whom we were dealing. France iia.l emerged from many difficulties which pressed upon her when our negotiations with her reached the decisive stage, and it might be that were such negotiations to be resumed to-day some slightly better terms might have been obtained. Take the case uf Italy. She was a country which, though politically the greatest possible consequent in Europe, was one which economically was not rich, and there were well understood limits, recognised by all authorities on international finance to the contributions which Italy could make. No one who dispassionately considered the position of Italy could have thought it proper to have asked more ot Italy than we di dask. Lord Birkenhead agreed that w e paid and were paying tne United States on a scale which the late Mi Bona laiw hardly exaggerated in describing as a scale wmen would affect ur stunuars of living lor a generation, ■ut we had some compensations. There was hardy anyone who be«ieved in the year 1915 that British finance could retain for London the control ot the finance of the world. Never could that result have been attained unless the gulden indispensable asset, British credit, had been retained. If the settlement with the United States had not taken place our national supremacy would have passed elsewhere. Broken as we had been by the war, we were still to-day the financial centre of the world. We should take great -id high hopes from that circumstance. Let them consider how far the Balfuur memorandum had contributed to it. It had made a two fold contribution. One was material, but the more impoitaut was moral. We said to the wuoie world, just as a business proposition, if our creditors would forgive us uur debts, though those who owe Us money were far mure numerous than those to whom we owed money, we would wipe out the whole account. A more generous offer had never been made by any country in the history of the world. Mr Snowden’s Attack. Lord Birkenhead referred to the attack recently made upon the Balfour memorandum by Air Bhilip Snowden, who was Chancellor ot the Exchequer in the Labour Government, also the terms of the amendment to his motion which was to be proposed by Lord Parmoor on behalf of the Labour Party. He noted that Lord Parmoor’s amendment approved the principle of the Balfour memorandum while regretting that the settlement made by tne Conservative Government imposed unfair burdens upon British taxpayers. He asked Lord Parmoor to say that it was not the purpose of the Labour Party to attempt to impai the authority of the Balfour memorandum, upon which depended every financial arrangement which had since been made in Europe. To repudiate the memorandum would inflict a grievous ami irreparable wound upon the reputation of this country. He himself had deep responsibility for the memorandum. He was a member of the Cabinet which had adopted it and he would regard the time when this momentous financial decision was taken as one of the supreme moments of his public life. Lord Pan-mor. in moving the amend-m»-i!t. said ‘hat the Labour Party had consistently adopted and followed what it regarded a> the loading principle of the Balfour Note. iior-.l Birkenhead askc! Lord Parmoor if he associated himself with the epithet * ‘infamous ‘ } applied by Mr Snowden »«• the B&lfoui Note. Lord Pat moor replied quite frankly that h e did not like it. Lord Parmour proceeed to criticise n certain aspect of the debt settlements. The Marquis of Salisbury congratulated Lord ParmoGr upcr. having dissociated himself irc-ni the won! “reputation ’ ar.d the word “infamous” which figured *n Mr Snowden’s obeervytior.s on the Balfour Noto. Lord I’armoor \ amendment was rejected by l c h‘ votes to G. and l ord B-rk^nh-. I’s motion was agreed to.