DEBT PAYMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1932, Page 5

DEBT PAYMENT

GOLD FOE U.S.A.

BEING SHIPPED FROM ENGLAND. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, November '3O. The “Daily Herald” : states :—The Government have decided'to snip gold to the, value of thirty millions sterling to New Yo-rk :far 'th'e'lpurpc's-6 of paying the, debtuinstialmeiit if necessary. The firstdinsfalme-nt Of'three millions sterling wprth 'of bar 'gold leaves today. There will not bei enough liners sailing to -ship the whole amount before December 15, but the Bank of England has insured the whole thirty millions. The insurers have been informed that the sum must be covered for three weeks.

Naturally -says the “Daily Herald” these arrangements to ship the geld will no,fc preclude a postponement of payment.

The arrangements for transport and insurance have been rushed so that the Government is prepared for all eventualities. •

The “Morning Post” states it. has the best authority for stating that the Cabinet hias decided that Britain will pay the American debt due on December IS, in the event of America refusing to agree to a suspension. The niajority of' the Ministers are at present in favour of payment in gold, which, the Post stays, is the last thing that Wall Street wants. BRITISH NOTE TO AMERICA. MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT. RUGBY, November 29. The new note to be sent to the United -tSates, is -still engaging -.the attention of Cabinet Ministers. It is generally recognised that fhe new note will! ,be one of Hie mast important of the official documents issued by Britain sincethe end of the- war, and the utmost care is being taken to see that the,- British case is adequately v -stated ifi 'substance and correct form. At present, it is not • intended by the Government to undertake formal consultations with other party leaders. There have obviously been many aspects of the debt requiring the fullest and mast careful consideration, and it is -necessary that the reasons should be stated in some detail, supported by facts inconvertible in their accuracy. > ■ Mr MacDonald and Mr Chamberlain had audiences with the King. Among many other considerations to be born e -in mind' is the effect upon ~v the Lausanne agreements, whether • Britain’s payments- could conceivably be continued without re-opening the ouestion, 9 on which a settlement was there Teached, and • whether Britain could go on paying-the-United-. States without'receiving anything from those countries which owe her money. According to the newspapers, the examination of the situation being undertaken by the Ministers includes al-so an assessment of the effects of every method of payment, whether by gold sterling or dollars, and upon these and kindred questions a mass of technical data has been .produced. It is the economic consequences of inter-governmental debts which receive moat attention in the British Press. The newspapers generally take the view expressed in the “News Chronicle” by Sir Walter Layton who after pointing out the effect of the American tariff, on© of the highest jn the world, upon the flow of goods, declares: “There is no device known to the science of economies or to the art of finance, which will enable a creditor to go on collecting debts due to it, if it does not receive the goods and services of the debtors.”

U.S. CAN’T HAVE'IT BOTH WAYS,

IS THE OPINION OF MR AMERY

LONDON, November 29. ,Mr Leopold Amery, speaking at Birmingham, said that Britain could not refuse payment of her - American debts, simply because it was, unpleasant or because of others defaulting. Repudiation would prove a _ double--1 edged weapon for Britain, which was still the greatest creditor nation in the world. Britain, 'he Said,'was owed, apart from war debts, four times more >by the rest of the world, than was Ow"d to America. The consequences of our default ■would strike us m the face in every ouarter. W e are at present engaged ,in insisting that the 'lrish Fre e state fulfil obligations. '.Must we now ad- ) m it that w« , have been wrong, and that Mr de'Valera is right in baying that a nation’s pledge .meant nothing jf its fulfilment happened to h e inconvenient. A tremendous election in Australia was based on whether she would fu|fil obligations; but she honoured them. Are we now going to fell Australia that what she fought for in order to preserve honour was n, price of foolish quixotism? What security shall we have if our example that our pacts and nledges mean nothing. We cannot repudiate, despite a burden imposed on u«, if 1 others refuse t 0 do so. Doubtless we, like the Americans, regard the supplies which they sold us in war time at Ftiff prices, as a• burnness transection. but as a common- effort. But the Americans are entitled to point, t,o the letter of our bond, and to the fact that Mr Baldwin repeated Wat bond after the war. ‘‘America,” h» added, “cannot have

it both Avays. She can have it i n debts or she can hav© it in trade. If That is made clear to America, it wii’-l bring us much nearer to a seitlement than any amount of reasoned despatches,”