ALLIED WAR DEBTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15185, 10 March 1923, Page 5

ALLIED WAR DEBTS.

LORD BALFOUR’S NOTE. AMERICAN OBJECTION. STATEMENT IN THE LORDS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn. Received MifrcTl if), 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Nlai'Clx 9. Lord Balfour, in the House of Lords, called attention to the misunderstandings arising from his Note of August last, dealing with international indebtedness. He had not, he said, taken part in the subsequent controversies, thinking that as time passed and changes occurred the matter might be allowed to rest;,but as the American Ambassador had declared the Balfour Note misleading and had requested the Government to explicitly remove the impression the Note had caused, he thought his continued silence might be misunderstood. The passage Mr Harvey complained of stated that the United States insisted that though the Allies were to-spend money America was only prepared to lend on Britain’s security'. Lord Balfour said he could not find anything that ljad passed was misleading or obscure. Britain" had suggested, as she had hitherto borne the burden of financing the Allies, that America, which had just entered the war, should relieve Britain of the duty of further financing the Allies. If the United States had adopted that plan there would have been no American loan' to Britain and many controversies would have been avoided, hut the United States refused to lend except to Britain, thus throwing a ! double burden upon her which she is .still carrying. If United States adhered to the view that the wartime deals between partners must" be regarded as separate s and isolated undertakings, America’s incontestable rights could not be enforced in a manner less likely to impair the happy Atfglo-American relations than they had been recently.’’-