The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1934. BRITAIN’S DEBT DECISION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 133, 7 June 1934, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1934. BRITAIN’S DEBT DECISION

BRITAIN’S decision not to make an instalment, nor even a token payment on account of the war debts, has been come to reluctantly; but on that account the decision must be regarded as the more seriously.

Herself a creditor country, Great Britain has no interest to encourage debt repudiation, nor even any species of non-pay-ment, no matter what the reasons therefor may exist. Unfortunately, the Government of the United States seems incapable of shaping up to the issue. There are many difficulties in the way of Congress doing this, as has already been shown in this column, and therefore need not be enumerated again. The attitude of the best-informed American newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, is definitely in favour of reduction to bring about a general betterment in world conditions. The National City Bank of New York has also expressed the same viewpoint. The latter institution, one of the largest banks in the United States of America, cannot be regarded as acting from an idealistic and impractical standpoint. It is intensely practical, and in the interests of America herself, urges that the matter is one for settlement. The American domestic point of view and the debtors’ point of view cannot be reconciled. In such circumstances, then, the only sensible thing to do is to meet in some sort of compromise. Neither party may be wholly right, and neither party will get wholly what it thinks it should, but both will gain by a compromise settlement. Such a point of view must be respected, and while statements of an extravagant nature, made by ignorant senators, may appear in the cables, the more reasonable views which are held should be borne in mind as an antidote. In any community there is never complete unanimity, and the larger the community the greater the deadweight of public opinion. The war debts issue is a complicated one, and the average man in the street in America and in Europe takes the snap-judgments of equally uninformed people as his guide in the matter. The prospect of benefit by cancelling a debt is not easy to appreciate by the American people when they have over 10,000,000 of unemployed, and a Budget deficit of a magnitude which was never dreamed possible a few years ago.

The British Government’s action in suspending the payment of war debts has effectively placed the onus of action on the President of the United States of America. Hfi will now be able to take action which shall have the colour of saving some of the debt, or alternatively suffering a complete loss. The revision of the debt which brings a resumption of payments will bear the colour, not of a failure, but of a success for the President.