FOUR DEFAULTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1932, Page 5

FOUR DEFAULTERS

TO UNITED STATES -CONFUSION AND UNCERTAINTY. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) WASHINGTON, December 14. The war debt situation to-night moved out of the realm of things academic into the field of hard reality, but' the confusion and the uncertainty

nevertheless seem, somehow, to have intensified. The American people and the American Government cannot be said to be anything like satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations leading up to December 15. Four out of the eleven countries due to make payments have announced defaults, namely France, Belgium, Hungary, and to-night Poland, while Estbonia’si action is still uncertain. Italy paid her war debt instalment to-day.

Five countries are to pay to-morrow 124,934,000 dollars that are due. That any action will be suggested by the President against the defaulters is dismissed as out of the question. Ail talk of retaliatory measures is without any foundation. It seems indicated that an impulse towards a clarification of a serious and obviously unhappy situation will come with President Hoover’s impending message to Congress relative to the entire question.

Usually well informed, the chief Washington correspondent of th e “Ne w York Times telegraphs to-night:— “President Hoover’s message to 1 Congress will review the state of world opinion relative to the debts on a factual basis, and will urge Congress to empower the executive statesmen of the* United States, in close cooperation with Britain, to approach a re-surveyj of the question for all of the nations involved without any regard to the acknowledged legal rights of the United States to collect!' the war debts. The Parliaments of the defaulting nations reflect the popular foreign belief. There is no moral. This is just as pronounced as the belief in Congress to the contrary. In the view of the U.S.A. administration, if the debts issue should settle down to a tug of war among the Parliaments, a brood of international hostilities will he engendered meaning much hardship to the world. The ameliorating agency of statesmanship must not be disregard. By paying their debt instalments Italy, and particularly Britain, are in a commanding position. Their plea for review and revision : s now expected to carry extra weight.”

The correspondent adds that Congress had been confident that all of the nations would pay. “Congress believed that they were bluffing, und that tlid entire attempt to obtain, 11 revision wbb selfish propaganda. The French and Belginn action has brought about a more reflective mood on the part of many influential members. Some of them welcome this action of the defaulting nations as advancing the date of the solution of the entire question by at least six months.” END OF UNITED FRONT. WASHINGTON, December 14. The New York “Times’ ” Washington correspondent, concluding a dispatch, with a special examination of the British position, points out that President Hoover feels that Britain was bound to maintain the united front with France as the result of the reparations agreement. He continues: “Now that the united front has been broken by the French default, the President is represented as feeling that an ideal time has come for the United States and Britain to work out the | world’s economic griefs, in which the debts play a strong part, at least economically.

RETALIATORY measures, WASHINGTON, December 15. Five thousand dollars fee for passport visas to American citizens dasirino' to travel to a country in default on° the war debt payments, is proposed in a resolution submitted in the Senate on Thursday by Senator McKeller. SIX COUNTRIES PAY DEBT. 'ESTHONIA ANOTHER DEFAULTER. (Received th day at 1.56 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 15. The United States to-dav collected the war debt payment from Britain, Italy, Ozecho-Slovakia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, while France, Belgium, Poland, Esthonia and Hungary failed to pay. Greece, which faded to meet hei 444,920 dollar,s payment on November 10, will, it is believed, pass up payment on January 1.