New Britain herald., 1915-09-21
LOAN NEGOTIATIONS
 NEARING CONCLUSION
Announcement of Definite
 Agreement Expected By .. Close of Week.

New York, Sept. 21.-Nego gotiations for the Notation of a credit loan to
 Great Britain and France of $600,- 1 OCO,O00 to 0,000,000, are rapidly l nearing conclusion, it was reported today. Announcement that definite agreement had been reached was ex- pected by the American finansciers
 within a few days possibly by the close of the week.
 There are several minor, matters yet to be decided upon. One of the chief of these was said to be the exict amount of the loan. No deci- sion, it was reported, had been reach
 ed as yet upon this point Several matters still undisposed of will enter
 into the decision as to the amount and his rnoy not be agreed upon till the last minute. g.qsn- .-..-..
 sThe Anglo-F'rench financial corn-
 mission continued today it's negotia-
 tions with American bankers. One
 of the chief subjects said to be under
 discussion was the inclusion of the
 conversion privilege in the five or
 ten year bonds to be issued by Gre;lt Britain and France for the loan. Plans
 were said to be in the making TO- grant the holders of the short term
 bond, the privilege of converting them
 into British and French joint 1-2
 per cent. bonds of a longer term at
 the maturity of the short term bonds.
 The life of the long term bonds,
 it was said, was yet to be agreed
 upon. It is understood positively,
 however, thot they would not run for fifty years as had been suggest
 ed It was thought that twenty years,
 possibly twenty-five, would be the neriod 0f fhe Ionp term hOpdS
 Members of the commission were
 guests today at luncheon given by
 A Barton Hepburn, chairman of the Chase National bank, at the Bankers
 club. Such members of the Bankers club as had not yet met the members of the commission, it was said would
 be thus afforded an opportunity of
 doing so.
 A report that there had been a
 hitch in the negotiations was author itatively denied by bankers in touch with the negotiations.
 One of the interesting features in connection with the negotiations it
 developed today was that Boston du anciers had been steadfastly request
 ing that the interest rate on the short l term bonds be made six per cent in | stead of five. It was said however. 1 Ii"dI 1OI IHOIe CIldH i've per cent | would be paid to the investor. The matter of providing method of paying for munitions is virtually eliminated and both sides are deter 1 mined not to tie up the whole sum at one time in New York Subordin- ation of troublesome question of pro- viding way for paying for munitions | of war has not simply postponed a de-
 cision on this point, in opinion of the | Anglo-French commission, as reflect | ed by it's callers, but will result in | its gradual disappearance. These | bankers have assumed that the big 1 credit would undoubtedly not be in tended to cover every dollars worth 1 of exports, but that Great Britain and l France would continue to remit gold 1 to America and also would sell American securities in this market. 1 These methods, it was thought, | could simply provide a way of talk ing the munitions matter out of the negotiations. .. The first big problem, as the com
 mission and it's American associates viewed it, was to stabilize exchange. This could be done by establishing
 a credit covering foodstuffs and cot ton alone, hardly reckoning manu- factured articles or munitions. With exchange stabilized, it was thought, there would be little difficulty in pay ing for munitions.