WAR DEBT UNCERTAINTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAR DEBT UNCERTAINTY

The refusal of Britain to seek from America a postponement of the instalment payment of interest and principal in respect of war debts due in December, reopens the whole question of the relation of war debt payments. A. half-year’s instalment is duo by Britain to U.S.A, on December 12, and if it is to be paid, provision will have to be made for the expenditure. In his budget statement on April 19 Mr. Neville Chamberlain explained that Ini had included no receipts on account of reparations or war debts, and no out. goings for British war debt payments. ■•lt seemed to me,” be continued, “ that the best course was to treat all side.-, of the account as being in suspense .... 1 similarly decided for the time being to omit any estimate of receipts for those Dominion war debts the service of which was suspended until July 1 at the time of the enunciation of Mr. Hoover’s plan. Although these debts stand upon a different footing from the . inter-Allied war debts, the two questions are to a certain extent inter-connected, and I think it wiser to treat them both as in suspense.” This statement shows that more is involved than a resumption of British payments. It has been predicted that an autumn budget will be needed to provide the money Britain will have to find, and that drastic economies will be the medium adopted. lhe sooner the situation is cleared up the bettor. It is unfortunate that no definite statement from the United States can be expected until after th® Presidential election, to bo hold in the second week of November, and the British policy at the moment is apparently to keep war debts from becoming an issue in the election.—Waikato 1 inies.