WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

BLOWING THE TRUMPET. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, July 10. President Hoover in a statement brief {details of which, were received in the 'Dominion on Tuesday last, bearing on the moratorium proposal, rightly observed that it would create confidence and that it meant a tangible aid to un employment and agriculture, but he went further and said: “The almost unanimous support:in the United Stat-. es is again profound evidence of tne sincere humanity of the 'American people.” • It is difficult to discover when this .‘‘sincere humanity’” comes in. In 1920 the British Government :, cancellation of war debts all round, and to his suggestion President Wilson re plied that it was highly improbable that either Congress or the people of the United States would consent to cancellation of any part of the debt due by the British Government to the Allies, and-there was no remission or cancellation. ‘ The original debt owing to the United States was £2,018,714,023 and by the terms imposed on the debtors they were to make a total payment of £4,633 265,495 or more than double the original debV.'The British position was set out in; the Balfour Note of' August 1022. ; That drew attention to the economic injury inflicted upon the world by the enormous war indebtedness, and stated;that the British Government would have been prepared to abandon all further right to German reparation and all claims to repayment by Allies provided that this renuniciation form-; ed part of a plan by which the great problem could be dealt with as a whole and find a satisfactory solution. A gen eral- settlement (the not continued) would be of more: value to mankind than any gains' that could acrue even

from the most successful enforcement

of legal obligations.f, The. JJnited Stat. i es Government .demanded its full “pound of flesh” : from- the British Government. ■ The Balfour Note added: . ‘‘ln any event they (the British Government) did not desire to make profit out of-;. any

less satisfactory arrangement. -In no circumstances did they propose, to ask / more from their, debtors than;: was necessary to pay their creditors.” The agreement made : -b'y Great Britain-with her debtors provided for the funding of . original debts amounting to £1,349,582/ 667, and for a repayment of this sum by annuities spread over a period of 62 years amounting to £1,187,825,000. Great Britain sacrificed a sum in principal alone amounting to £160,767,567. America piade no sacrifice but insisted, on payment to ‘the last ,f /with interest sought to secure more than -double 'the ; original deist. The “sincere humanity" was on the part of Britain, while the part of an abso lufs Shylock was played by America. This w f as not the first humane gesture made by Great Britain. Professor. Edwin Gay, a former'member of the "War Trade Board of the United Stat-

es, as far back as 1926, in an article published in an American magazine, .after rehearsing the story of the reparations imposed on France in 1875, after the Napolenic, war what happened to the inter Allied/war-debts ,of tlie period, showed §)hpw of; awarded by/Great Britaip' to her allies' at least . / represeiited subsidy payments, qpt loans, how that ol .the loahs £6)200,000 advanced: to Austraia became with accrued interest £l6, 600,000, and was settled in .1824. by; the payment by Austria of £2,000,00u. Protessor Gay added: ‘ ‘Beset with ' difficulties of the gravest character at heme, with taxes at an unprecedented height, with such serious financial com plications that Ricardo was supporting a demand fora capital levy, "with agriculturein distress and industry languish ing, with an army of unemployed and with riots in her manufacturing towns.

England nevertheless showed expedite moderation towards France .and prudent forbearance‘'towards her allies”' Oh : ' the matter of the war debts it is probable that tKe,historian of .the future .will judge, that ,England chose I: a .wiser course a i century ago ./than that which the Unitejl States is now pursuing/’ . England .did not boast of “sincere humanity” a . hundred years • ago or when the Balfour Note was aued., The'Hoover moratorium from America has been wrung 'from her by her owm nationals hot from any human feeling for the debtors, . but to: stop the increasing distress in the United States.