U.S. AND DEBT CRITICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16896, 9 September 1926, Page 10

U.S. AND DEBT CRITICS.

AN EDUCATIVE EFFECT. “CANNOT IGNORE OUTBURST.” (From a Correspondent.) NEW YORK, August 3. The revival of the Anglo-American debt controversy, though it has aroused much irritation on this side, is none the less having a distinctly educative c rr c c t It is true the Middle West, so far, lias shown not the slightest interest in the questions at issue, but in the East the controversy is the leading topic of discussion. The New York Times, for instance, devotes a long despatch to quotations from the London Daily Mail. , .. .. 'The leading article and the goici Facts” arc reprinted textually. No Use in Anger. Editorially the New York Times reads the Commons a long lecture for assuming on behalf of Great Britain a i moral superiority to the United States, but after venting its feelings it justifies the Daily TVlail by saying—“At the same time we cannot afford to live in a spirit of splendid isolation from the rest of the world or to fall to note seriously the meaning of this outburst of feeling against the United States in connection with war debts. The fact that this feeling has now come out into the opening may be displeasing and disconcerting to many Americans, but there is no use in being angry or resentful about it. “There it stands, a fact, and we cannot ignore the existence of the sentiment.” After quoting Mr Snowden’s statement that in a short while the United States wilt be taking £30,000,000 a vear from the workers of Europe, or the whole sum paid in reparations by Germany, the newspaper proceeds— Anxiety. "This is a consummation which Americans cannot contemplate without uneasiness and anxiety. They must agree that not even in our own selfish interests would such a result be desirable’. Later our own public men will probably agree with those of Europe that in time the whole great problem of war debts must be Studied afresh and settled anew. “To this clear implication of the sirniificancc of lhe debate in the Commons it is not wise for Americans to take exception. Nor should they allow it to give them deep offence. It does give them just cause to think.” Similarly the Baltimore Sun appeals to both sides in the controversy to abolish special pleading. The arguments of statesmen and politicians, it says, offend both the mind and the conscience. "Mr Mellon’s lately discovered theory that after all business is business and the. talk or (he Administration that the entire war debt proper of France has been cancelled fills it with impatience. £0 does Mr Mellon's subsequent discovery—dictated by the fear that Britain would call for equal treatment with France —that part of the debt contracted by her is not really war debt, but commercial debt.” “Saved by America." The Ifearst newspapers praise Mr Baldwin, and say that Britain "is misrepresented by snivellers in the Commons,” adding—- “ The willingness of those whose very national existence was saved by American dollars, American man power, and American lives to requite their obligation with insult should warn American people never again to adventure so fpolishly.” They tell their readers in .the Middle West and the West—“lf we bad not declared war at all wc should have been richer by many thousand million dollars, to say nothing of invaluable lives. Britain would have had no war spoils, Europe would have become a Ilohcnzollern chattel, and the franc and the pound would probably long before this have gone to the pot.” In the same strain the Philadelphia Record says—“We submit to Mr Churchill, Commander llillon Young, and the members of Il»'liament who applauded them lhat after a debtor has had the money and spent it and been rescued from annihilation by it, bis reluctance to repay any or it is not precisely Urn part of a man of honour, ' and' it is in the worst possible taste for him to asperse the character and motives or the man who lent him Hie money.” On the other hand, one of ttic representatives from Massachusetts preseuts a formidable array of figures demonstrating that, calculated at 3 per cent., ttie United Slates lias forgiven France only IS per cent, of the face value of tlie debt and not 50 per cent, as the Administration claims. Ilis argument if carried to its conclusion, shows that Britain has been forgiven nothing. American cartoonists are exploiting the situation to Hie fullest extent, depicting debtors shouting abusive epithets at Uncle Sam. A striking exception is Hie New York World cartoonist, who pa hits Uncle Sam carrying away money bags and leaving a nude debtor to elottie himself. with an empty barrel.