WAR DEBTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 23 October 1930, Page 5

WAR DEBTS.

FIVE-YEAR MORATORIUM. TENTATIVE PROPOSAL. LONDON, Wednesday. Talk of the -war debt invariably leads to a crop of denials, yet the subject is so vital to the overburdened peoples of Europe, especially the overtaxed in Britain, that a mere whisper is sufficient to evoke columns of speculation. A lengthy message is published from the “Daily Express’s” special correspondent at Paris, Mr 11. J. Greenwall, who understands that Mr Walter E. Edge, the United States ambassador to France, has gone to Washington specially to report to President Hoover concerning the reception of a tentative proposal to grant the European debtors a five years’ moratorium. Mr Greenwall records the fact that the whole of the conservative Press of France is in a state of commotion, because it is understood that the United States wants an assurance before granting a moratorium that France will not spend the money otherwise due to America on armaments. Rome also,is being sounded regarding Italy’s shipbuilding programme. Mr Greenwall adds it is not a question of sentiment, it is purely a business matter with the United States. A moratorium would benefit her as much as Europe. Germany twill certainly claim a moratorium from Reparations payment, and France fears that if once she is permitted to withhold payment, she may never start again.