THE WAR DEBTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 541, 26 May 1933, Page 4

THE WAR DEBTS

r? — : — r* j It is now eyident, since Mr. j Ramsay MacDonald has let the j cat out of the bag, that the Inter-Government War Debts will form a subject of the discussions whieh will take place at the World Economic Conference. President Roosevelt has taken his courage in both hands and agreed that this subject shall be open for discussion. Whether the agreement which will be come to at the Conference in London will be ratified by the House and Senate at Washington is quite another matter. In view of the fact that there is likely to be quite a lot of discussion on the subject it is as well that the details of the war debts problem should be known. The debts were contracted in dollars and are repayable in the same currency. They are therefore set out helow in American currency : — War Loans contracted with j the U.S.A. (figures in millions of dollars) .

These war loans were spent m the United States and the T'rea- ! sury Department figures indicj ate that the spending was or i the f ollowing : —

i (Figures in millions of dollars). i ' Munitions, including remounts 2,493 j Munitions for other Govts 205 I Cotton and Exchange 2,645 Cereals 1,422 Other foods .... 1,630 Tobaceo 145 Other supplies 613 Transportation 136 Shipping 173 Interest and Maturities 1,379 Relief 538 Miscellaneous .... 489 Total 11,868 It is to be noticed that the total of the second list does not agree with the total of the war loans incurred with the United States. The list of expenditures exceeds the war loans total by

some ten per cent. ine reason for this discrepancy is that the debtor nations used other means besides the proceeds of war loans to pay for their purchases. For instance, the United Kingdom used the American security holdings of the insurance com- 1 panies to pay for a considerable proportion of their debts as they were incurred so as to keep up exchange value of sterling, Purchases of various commodities are included under the heading of "exchange." Some of the miscellaneous expeditures were for silver. But it is clear that the great bulk of the loans were spent in the United States in buying American munitions, American cotton, American grain and American tobacco, besides paying for American transportation. The nature of the spending of ■ these loans and the time when they were incurred are important factors to be kept in mind in any discussion concerning the re-arrangement or cancellation of the war debts owed to the : United States of America. .

A. and P. Life Members Certificates of life membership are heing forwarded to the f ollowing mepihers pf the Rotorua A. and P. Association: klgssrs. H. M. Martin, (Ngongotaha) , T. H. S'loane (Rotorua,) T. P. Dowling (Wairoa Road), J. N. McLean (Wellington), A. Steele (Rotorua), G. Steele (Rotorua), W. G. But.cher (Reporoa) . . The certificates were to have been presented at the official opening of the show hy the Minister of Lands, Hop. E. A. Ransom, but owing to a temporary indisposition on the part of Mr. Ransom ,it was decided n.ot to extend the ceremony any further than could be avoided .

Pre- PostArmistice Armistice TlGreat Britain .... 3,696 581 4,277 France 1,970 1,435 3,405 Italy 1,031 617 1,648 Belgium 172 207 371 Russia 188 5 193 Poland — 160 16( Czecho-Slovakia — 92 92 Yugo-Slavia .... 10 42 52 Rumania — 38 38 Austria — 24 24 Other Countries 10 60 7( 7,077 3,261 10,338