The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1933. UNCLE SAM’S PROBLEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1933, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1933. UNCLE SAM’S PROBLEMS.

The question of the war debt settlement- is a very present issue again at present, and the British representatives are now at Washington trying to make some impression mi Uncle Sam. The United. "States has many problems of great concern to grapple with at present, and the war debts is not the only 3 nor tbe least of the questions for settlement. America has other state debts to consider. South American countries are heavy debtors of Wall Street, and their case is no less desperate—•perhaps more so—than that of European countries. The Latin American Digest of last month makes a reference to the matter. But first of all it makes a breezy reference to the President and his two predecessors, who had handled the debt question, apparently without getting very far. It is pointed out the United States has a “dollar interest” in Latin America and goes on to say: “The biggest tiling the United States has to worry about with regard to Latin America, is how to recover the billions of dollars that an insane, greedy and shortsighted Wall Street poured upon Latin America as into a sink. It will take a great deal of “dollar diplomacy”; to solve that problem.” The frank statement of the case shows there is some analogy between the two groups of debt owing. The analogy is explained further as the Digest, proceeds: “Most of those billions which Latin America owes the United States have disappeared already from the country, leaving hardly any trace. They went back to the United States long ago; and of their, short passage through Latin America nothing profitable or very little remains.” How like the war debt—money borrowed to arm and equip the Allies, the said money going back to Uncle Sam, to pay for the goods! The Digest does not think that “President Boosevelt can erase those debts. That is a futile thought—but all must think hard about a way to settlement.’’. In December next at Montevideo, there is to he a Pan-American Conference to try and work out plans for the benefit of Latin America. The good folk aye not discouraged evidently by results (or the want of them) at the London Conference. They will s"ck apart from the settlement of their own internal difference, which are very considerable and involved, to set about a recovery wagrai me affecting economic conditions, and Uncle Sam will he at the table. If nothing nemes of the ore sent negotiations at Washington, about the British w ar debt, proceedings at Montevideo will he watched. Put heth. issues are interdependent, and if America requires a settlement, must make some real advances. Latin America expects better trailing conditions as •» means to revice markets and assist to lift tbe life of the workers. More direct interchange of trado with Britain, likewise, would he a helpful way 1° assist in oayment of the war debt. America lias net yet offered to explore

trading channels, because there is not enough trade within her own borders to meet local conditions. But international trading has wider possibilities than individual trading which at the best is limited and con lined to a groove, international trade offers an outlet for expansion, and the branching out may be just the fillip required to"lieb the world at large. America is very ready to attempt costly experiments at home, and the idea is to create codes for overseas trade and so help to lift the country along. It has possibilities of useful success.