DEFAULT OF GREECE

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 127, 24 May 1932, Page 8

DEFAULT OF GREECE

® CURRENCY COLLAPSE RUGBY, May 21. A reply has been received by the British Government to the recent protest of the British representative in Greece supporting the formal protest made by the International Financial Commission at Athens against the failure of the Greek Government to carry out its legal obligations in regard to foreign loans.

The British Government has been informed that the present financial situation of Greece compelled the Greek Government to suspend temporarily the transfer into foreign currency of sums for the payment of coupons of Greek loans maturing on Alay 1. because if such payments were continued a complete collapse of the drachma would follow since the only remedy for avoiding a Budget deficit would be a fresh issue of paper money.

The Greek Government hopes the temporary suspension of the payments will enable it to await the results of the Lausanne Conference and reach an agreement with its creditors. It states that the creditors would benefit as Greece would be able to make them fair and as far as possible satisfactory proposals. The Greek Government is prepared to submit the whole question to arbitration which might include the capacity of Greece to pay. Similar replies are under-stood to have been received by the French and Italian Governments. STERN MEASURES LONDON, May 23. The Daily Express Athens correspondent reports that drastic cuts in the pay of the civil servants caused a strike of State employees and M. Venizelos decided to answer the challenge with a counter threat. Describing the general strike in the

nation's hour of crisis as tantamout to a revolution, he announced that all strikers would be tried by court-mar-tial.

The bold order led to a series of clashes with the military. Al. Venizelos resigned and the strikers decided to return to work.