WAR'S DEBT LEGACY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 7

WAR'S DEBT LEGACY

MR MELLON IN LONDON VISIT TO MR MACDONALD. [British Official Wireless.] RUGBY, June 17. Mr A. W. Mellon (secretary to the United States Treasury), who has ju.-J arrived in London on a private visit, called on the Prime Minister at the House of Commons this afternoon. REQUEST FOR REDUCTION. AMERICA ’S ATTITUDE. NEW YORK, Al ay 13. Fur the first time since they were contracted, the United States has had to listen to a semi-official request from Britain and European nations for a reduction of the war debts. The response was what intelligent observers expected an impartial examination of the effects of reparations and debts on international trade, and what reduction, if such were, warranted by changed econo mic conditions, might be made. This was, in effect, the text, of the resolution passed by the International Chamber of Commerce, which has just terminated its discussions at Washington. President Hoover is opposed to the reopening of the war debt question at this juncture; the conference went just as far as it could, with respect for his views. Air. Hoover has enough troubles on his hands, without adding another that will be greater than all the rest. He expects a deficit of £200,000,000 on the national finances. Add to this another £200,000,000 for finance that must be found for loans made in cash to returned soldiers in the two months succeeding Congress, which approved them over the veto of the President. Add yet again £200,000,000 loss in exports, with an assured prospect of the loss being maintained, as the trade with Rus sia, the only country whose commerce with the United States increased last year, is sagging. Add persistent demands by {States all over the Union for aid from the Federal Government in meeting claims for unemployed relief, this having depleted their treasurNot a pleasant outlook, by any means. Ear less pleasant, relatively, than the outlook ahead of Great Britain. The tide has commenced to turn in Britain’s favour. Lt is time. She has carried the burden of the civilised world through the period of post-war reconstruction, and her hour of recovery is at hand, in promises of renewed trade with many countries outside the Empire. Unemployment is decreasing; it is increasing in the United States. No hand is raised against Britain. Hands are raised all over the world against United States for the affront her latest tariff gave. Any consideration of war debt reduction in the United States will be fiercely combated by States that regard the war debt, as nothing more than a bill for goods supplied according to specif! cation. Al any States, especially in the impoverished Middle West, have no for-

eign outlook. In addition to this, the majority of the newspapers keep urging their readers to halt the trend in official . Washington to become party to pacts i and understandings with foreign countries. The papers have eagerly seized - on the recent Nicaragua affair in which 1 the United States disowned their own . people in foreign countries—that is the ) view that is put forward for the read- • era’ benefit. - Not only is President Hoover against 5 revision of war debt, from motives of . economic stress, but ex-President Coolidge, who may come back to the White ■ House, has set his face against it for . all time. Besides these considerations, ! the remission of two billion dollars, at . a time when the country is short that > amount in revenue and trade, does not I appeal to millions who look at life goner- . ally from the standpoint of dollars. But the die is cast. The subject' has been broached. It will be broached again The time is coming when the United States must take cognisance of war debt and its effect on the economic out look. 'That is all the debtor nations can bo content with for the moment. But in the mind of diplomacy it is no mere vision. The seed has been sown. Many Congressmen and Senators who believe the tariff has been an affront to the world will learn to think similarly about the war debt. Then the reckoning will be at hand.