INTERNATIONAL DEBTS

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14585, 7 February 1921, Page 5

INTERNATIONAL DEBTS

SHOULD HAVE BEEN WIPED OUT. AT THE END OF THE WAR. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received February 6, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, February 4. Mr Austen Chamberlain, speaking at Birmingham, said he would have preferred that at the end of the war the whole of the international debt of the Allies and the associated Powers should have been wiped "out, enabling all to commence, with a clean slate. There was no proposal for a settlement of the international debts among the Allies and the associated Powers, whether total or partial remission, to which Britain was not prepared to be a party. "We made such proposals," he said, "but they were not acceptable to America. It would be beneath our dignity to make them again, and render our motives liable to misconception. We sought no international advantage for ourselves. We proposed a solution by which we should have foregone larger claims than would have been remitted to us. We proposed it in the interests of good relations among the people, and for the restoration of international trade. Coir great external debt was due to obligations undertaken on behalf of our Allies." k