Evening star., 1915-09-14
TO BORROW BILLION
SOLELY ON NOTES
Reported That Anglo-French
Commission Has No Offer
of Collateral.
PROPOSITION AROUSES
FINANCIAL DISTRICT
Implied Threat Of Wholesale Cur
tailment of Purchases Here Should
Plan Be Rejected.

NEW YORK, september l4.-lne re-
port that that Anglo-French financial
commission contemplated borrowing Il
billion dollars here without collateral
of any sort and solely on government
notes of Great Britain and France
overshadowed all other topics in the
financial section today.
Heretofore the opinion has prevailed
that Great Britain and France would
secure the proposed mammoth loan by
American securities, dollar for dollar,
or by some other acceptable form of
collateral. All calculations of Ameri
can financiers prior to the commissions
arrival here had been based on that
assumption. The reported plan of the
commission providing for a straight
loan without collateral has caused the
biggest sensation of the year in the
New York financial district. 1t was the
consensus of financial opinion that the
commission would find it's task tremen-
dously more difficult than would be the
case were the proposed credit loan Sc
cured by collateral of American bonds
and stock, as at first suggested.
Neutrality Issue Arises.
Whether a strict Interpretation of
American neutrality would permit the
issuance of a straight commercial loan
on bonds of two of the allied warning
nations was topic of considera Bile
conjecture. The belief prevailed that
the administration at Washington would
not interfere. Although this opinion
was almost universally held, no one
could be found to stand sponsor for a
public announcement to that effect, nor
was any one, apparently, willing to say
upon what the opinion was based.
In brief the reported plan of the
commission, SO far as it could be
called a plan in the present somewhat
nebulouS nature of the commissions
program, was as follows:
The establishment here of a NAM
moth credit loan, from the proceeds
OF which would be paid all bills for
exports to Great Britain and France
and probably Russia.
TO fix the amount of this loan at as
nearly billion dollars as possible.
The commsSio itself declined posi-
lively to discuss the report that this
was its plan.
Chairman Readings Statement.
Lord Reading, it's chairman, in the
only statement he has made since he
landed here, did not refer to it, but
confined his remarks to a general re-
view of the situation as he saw it,
and to a recital of the reasons why
any adjustment of the present de-
moralized foreign exchange market
was desirable.
In case the commission should fail
in its plan. it was said, wholesale
curtailment of American exports would
ensue. There is nothing, II was said,
that Great Britain and France buy
here that they could not obtain else
where, with the single exception of
munitions of war These they were
prepared to pay for in gold, if neces-
sary. The wheat they Will need for
the next year, it was said, could be
bought in Canada, Argentina, Aus
tralIa, India and Russia. shoul@ the
Dardanelles be forced by next March.
Irrespective of the Russian supply. the
visible export supplies of wheat in
Canada, Argentina, Australia and In
dia were placed at 325, 100000 bushels
Or sufficient to last till March.
Cotton is already held in large guam
titles in Great Britain, it was said,
and by stinting- the supply could be
made to last till the great fields of
Egypt, now idle and untitled, could be
made to produce sufficient to take the
place of what otherwise would be
brought from the southern states.
Products Available Elsewhere.
Meats would be bought to large ex-
tent. it was said, from the Argentine
and manufactured goods from the re?
naming neutral nations of Europe.
American exports would dwindle to the
leanest figures of the leanest years, it
was said, for all Europe that could i'm
port goods would import from what
ever other markets it could find.
Such was the dark picture held up by
financiers who spoke of the possible
failure of the commission to establish
its hoped-for credit. 1t is more to the
interest of the United States. they said.
than to the interest of either Great
Britain or France that the mammoth
credit be forthcoming. The commits
sion, if it's views we're properly re-
nected, holds this opinion, too and,
holding it. is not inclined to permit
American bankers to dictate the terms
of the loan.