NOTE FULLY DRAFTED.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18807, 1 December 1932, Page 7

NOTE FULLY DRAFTED.

SUBMITTED TO THE KING. PREPARATIONS FOR PAYMENTS. SHIPMENTS OF GOLD. United Fress Assn. —-tec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, Nov. 30. The meeting of the Cabinet last evening lasted two hours. The new war debt Note to the United States was fully drafted, but final consideration of it was left over until to-day. 'Mr Baldwin is to leave London this morning t 6 keep an engagement in Glasgow and he is expected to refer to the subject in a speech this evening. The Prime Minister, -Mr MacDonald, visited the King and told His Majesty the contents of the Note. The Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, is to return from 'Geneva, to-morrow. The Morning Post says it has the best authority for stating that the Cabinet decided that Britain shall pay the American debt due on December 15 in the event of the refusal of America to agree to suspension of payment. Gold Payment Favoured. The majority of the Ministers at present are in favour of the payment being made in gold, which is the last thing Wall Street wants, says the Post. The Daily Herald says the Government has decided to ship gold to the value of £30,000,000 to New Y r ork for the purpose of paying the December ‘instalment if necessary. The first portion, 'to the value of £3,000,000 in bar gold, is to leave England to-day. There will not be enough liners sailing to ship the whole amount before December 15, but the Bank of England has insured the whole quantity. The. insurers have been informed that the "sum must be covered for three weeks. Naturally, adds the Herald, the arrangements to ship the gold will not preclude 'the postponement of the payment. The arrangements for transport 'and insurance were rushed so that the Government might be prepared for all eventualities. An Embarrassing Situation. The Attorney-General, Sir Thomas Insldp, speaking at Gosport, said the simple fact about the debt settlement to America was 'that the debt was incurred at a time of necessity and the loan was made, not in the form of this or that currency, but in the form of goods. If America chose to erect a tariff wall, which made it impossible for Britain to repay in goods what she borrowed in goods, obviously an embarrassing situation arose. .However, they should try 'to visualise the situation as it appeared to America, whose attitude on the subject of payment could be readily understood.