East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1921-10-31
DEBT CANCELLATION
MAY BOB UP DURING
DISARMAMENT CONFAD
Feeling in England is That Con-
ference Will Drift Toward
World Financial Review.
BY EARLE C. REEVES.
International News Service Staff
Correspondent.

LONDON, Oct. 31.-''Whether We
plan it so or not; whether we like it or
not the question of debt cancellation
is going to be crowded onto the floor
of the disarmament conference in
| Washington"
| Here is a view taken by certain Brit
ish writers and economists. A view
that has led to reasoning along the fol-
lowing lines:
All signs. printed and spoken-the
latter obtained by personal contact in
official and unofficial quarters-point
Ito a campaign of discussion which will
bubble along during subsequent
weeks and give an appearance OF
world demand for world financial
review, with adjustments.
The only possible adjustment is
one that shall start with an American
sacrifice, which shall be passed on to
Britain, France, Belgium and Ger
many by cancellation of debts owed
England and by decreasing the indem-
nifty burden On Germany.
Officially, the treasury and foreign
office position is that they received a
debt cancellation suggestion from
France many months ago, forwarded
it on to Washington, where 1t was
promptly turned down, and that that
ends it. The British government real
ICES that the subsequent debt cancel
lation is unpopular with the rank and
file in the States and desires nothing
so much as that the subject be drop
ped once and for all. Britain is will
| ing to discuss cancellation of debts
owed her on the continent. but cannot
propose reopening of the American
debt question.
So run the official 'hand-outs'' OBJ
tanned when, regularly, the question
pops up again in some form.
| Although the debt cancellation
| question has been killed without equiv
| ocation, by two or three-at least
| formal and official denials, four or
five-at least-cabinet ministers, in
| the course of speeches, subsequently
| have reopened the subject. The last
| member of His Majesty's government
to do so was Winston Churchill, in a
speech in Dundee on September "a.
/ IL 10 diSO Illdl lil6 1dlty
Chronicle, known as the Lloyd George
journal, has been at the forefront in
bringing debt cancellation to the front
as a Washington subject, while the
Pail Mall and Globe, the evening
newspaper owned by the controlling
interests of the Chronicle, in a strong
ly and carefully worded editorial,
| warns America that her appeals to the
| worlds spirit of philanthropy, in the
| Washington conference "can scarcely
| sound convincing If they are to be
taken as from a nation that insists up
| on its full financial rights over an ex-
hausted and impoverished world.%
| During the war there was developed
in Fleet street very effective system
of unifying, through the Newspaper
IiPublisher's Association, the journalis-
tic policies of the nation by mere
word passed along the line of offices
in Fleet street. Since the war it is still
possible to obtain definite and fixed
reaction. or Withholding of comment.
Within limitations, the press Of Great
Britain, government press and oppo-
sition alike. can be 'inspired." ,9.
The press reports on the Washing
ton conference preliminaries have had
a certain suspicious similarity 1t may
be coincidence. 1t may be something
else. i3tr