Evening star., 1923-01-27
Baldwin Spills the Beans.

Stanley Baldwin, chancellor of the
British exchequer and lately visitor
to this country as a member of the
British debt-funding commission, may
be an able financier, but he certainly
grades low in the diplomatic scale.
Arriving in Southampton yesterday,
homeward bound from his American
mission, he gave out newspaper In
terview, printed today, which is cal
culated to multiply the difficulties in
the way of successful conclusion of
negotiations for the funding Of the
five billion dollars of Indebtedness
owed by his government to the gov
ernment of the United States. The
burden of his complaint is that at the
American end the funding operations
are in the hands Of politicians" Mr..
Baldwin now is safe forever from the
charge that he is a politician, or even
that he is polite.
In substance, he said that while the
executive officials of the American
government were disposed to be rea-
sonable as to terms for debt settle
ment, Congress had to be taken into
account, and Congress was made up
largely of farmers and rural.minded
representatives who knew little or
nothing about international finance,
and besides were politicians who cared
more for what the American people
wanted than they did about making
things easy for the British people.
Those were not his exact words, but
reading of his interview leaves the un-
escapable impression that that was
what he meant. There are men of the
British way of thinking in the eastern
states, he said, but in the west they
merely sell wheat and hogs and other
produce and have no further interest
in international matters.
Mr.. Baldwin intimates that satisfac-
tory settlement could be made with
the American cabinet or with business
men, but he laments that any agree
ments arrived at must be confirmed
by the representatives Of all the peo-
pie, and apparently he thinks this is
wrong, despite the fact that the bill
lions Of dollars loaned to England be-
longed to all the people. If the people
who loaned the money could be denied
a voice as to the terms Of repayment.
1t is to be assumed that all would be
lovely, from the British point of view.
but as their wishes must be consult
ed, Mr.. Baldwin Is in despair.
1t Is difficult to estimate the harm
which may result from Chancellor
Baldwin's foolish utterances. In the
first place, the executive officials of
this government are unlikely to relish
the suggestion that they would be
"easy marks and willing to put some
thing over on the American people
were it not for Congress, and Con-
gress is quite unlikely to indulge in an
outburst Of pro-British sentimentality
over the suggestion that a majority
of senator's and representatives are
"rubes,' who have no competent
knowledge of international questions.
Executive officials of the government
have been hopeful of obtaining amend
ments to the debt-funding law which
would make possible easier terms than
the funding commission now is au-
thorized to grant. Mr.. Baldwin's in
terview is calculated to make that
hope difficult of realization. The Brit
ish had good case, as things stood,
and the prospects were favorable that
they would win substantial share
of what they asked. But their case
now is badly prejudiced by too much
and too loose talking.