OUR AMERICAN DEBT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 55, 12 July 1940, Page 5

OUR AMERICAN DEBT

The Editor, "The Listener." Sir.-When I wrote suggesting that Mr, Vaile seemed to be "grossly misinformed" as to some of his "facts," I abstained from describing them in appropriate terms. The British Ambassador has since corroborated my point that the war issue depends for us on immediate American help, But when Mr. Vaile trumpets his English citizenship (which he apparently does not consider speaks for itself) and classifies those who expose his foolishness as "enemies of England," there seems no reason why I should not speak Lisinly. If the title of Englishman may be aces by bombastic assertion, Mr. Vaile runs out an easy winner. Personally I prefer to reserve the term for

a citizen who has something better to offer than a formal expression of "deep regret" for a deliberate repudiation of the nation’s signed undertaking, This signed undertaking to pay was given by the British Government of 1922, It was repudiated by the British Government of 1932. (Mr. Vaile might inform us which of these two British Governments was an "enemy of England"). From 1932 to 1940 the latter Government asserted it could pay nothing on account of the debt-and paid nothing. But on the outbreak of war this Government produced 1,000,000,000 dollars’ worth of gold, on its creditors? doorstep, for the purchase of vital munitions. The Yankee is doubtless an awful blackguard. But he has at least a modicum of intelligence, Mr. Vaile must not lose his temper if the Yankee greets his plea of "quite inevitable" default and "unsurmountable difficulties" a little contemptuously. I should have expected that few Englishmen would have found that common honesty allowed them to persist in such absurdities. As to Mr, Vaile’s complaint that I have not replied to his assertion that the debt "could only be paid in goods," I may say I did not reply because any schoolboy knows that the United States takes annually something like £50,000,000 worth of goods from Britain. Over the credits thus created, Britain could exercise any control it chose. The point is that since 1932 nothing whatever has been paid. Mr. Vaile is not the only person who feels the limitation of space in dealing with an opponent. But any difficulties I have arise from the singularly inept use he made of what he had, It is simply not a fact that "gold did not exist in anything like sufficient quantity" to pay the debt. (Has Mr. Vaile the courage to say exactly what quantity of gold is necessary to pay a given quantity of debt?). It is not a fact that the authorities of U.S.A. did not know the effect of gold imports. It is not a fact that they wanted the gold. It came in spite of them. It came largely in consequence of the American devaluation of the dollar in 1933. Mr. Vaile says this devaluation "robbed English investors of forty per cent. of their holdings. of American securities." This is about as close as he has got to the truth, I suppose I must again be accused of doing my "utmost to besmirch England’s name" when I point out that this is exactly what England did to American holders of her securities when she went off gold in 1931 two years before. I congratulate Mr. Vaile in scoring so heavily with his charge of "robbery" against the Yankee. But it is well he explained so emphatically that he was an Englishman. I would have supposed that anyone deserving the title would have been too ashamed in the circumstances to bring a charge of this nature. Mr. Vaile’s references to the default of individual States are irrelevant. The remarks quoted from President Roosevelt have obviously no . reference whatever to the advance of money, In my earlier letter also I complained that I had not seen "Locksley Hall’s" letter. I assumed that Mr. Vaile’s comment did justice to it. I tender my apologies to "Locksley Hall" for what I now find to be a quite unwarrantable assumption. ‘. Yours, etc., eat,

DOUGLAS

SEYMOUR

Hamilton, June 17, 1940,

More " Letters from Listeners " will be found on Page 55.

LETTERS FROM LISTENERS (Continued from page 5)