Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-10
The British Debt Settlement,

It's OT'1\UHSTVS A"POf '
~ both sides of the water there is gen
eral satisfaction over the prospect OF
refunding Great Britair's war debt to
To the United States. Mr.. Lloyd George, 1t
is true, registers disappointment" at the
terms England is able to pay" says he,
"but it is a heavy BURDEN Allowance must
he made however for . natural tendency of
the former prime minister to behold the
seamy side of his successors doings Nor is
great store to be laiI by the qualms of those
jncurably suspicious American who feel that
somehow the British are going to 'out-trade'
us. When financiers and statesmen as KEEN
as seasoned and as straightforward as those
who negotiated this matter for Britain and
for the United States come to an agreement
Justice is more than likely to have been done
both sides.
Four billion dollars is the approximate
principal to be repaid, a sum unexampled in
dealings between friendly nations. The debt
is for goods purchased in this country during
III
munitions. Thus the proceeds of the original
loans found their way into all channels of
American industry and trad and at the
same time served to promote the common
fortunes of the Allied cause with which we
!. ere associated in arms and in interests most
vital. Of some seven billion dollars worth of
A. troy oafin
lion were paid for, leaving Tor credits the re-
mainder, which is the object of the present
refunding negotiations. eve arc not here to
ask favors or to impose on generosity" MI
Stanley Baldwin, head of the British finan-
cial mission to Washington, declared. I'VE
want. on such terms as will produce the least
the two countries, fair business settlement
a square deal, settlement that will secure
for America the repayment to the last cent
of those credits which the United States Gov
eminent established n America for us, their
associates in the war"
This being the will Of the debtor, it was
that would be reasonable ana fair. 1t was
essential that the terms should extend the
payment over an adequate period of years and
should fix the interest charge at support
able rate. Four billion dollars IS sum which
no nation could pay out OF hand;> decades
must be allowed for it's liquidation. Mo-
TO Ana 1JIch
less just to Britons, to require installments
so large or interest rates so high that the
purchasing power of the debtor people, who
are ou- own country's best customers, would
be depressed. Taxation in Great Britain il
now in excess of one hundred dollars pc
capita; for it to be raised far above that ex
traordinary figure to meet an American de
mand would be unfortunate all the way round
In these circumstances it was foregone tina
the Washington Government would have t.
depart from the letter of the law laid dowl
by Congress last year in the act institutini
the debt-funding commission. That act pre-
scribed as a maximum period for the pay
ment of the principal of any Allied debt tt
our treasury, twenty-five years. 1t stipulat
ed, moreover, that the rate Of interest SHOULD
not be les sthan four and quarter per cent
this being the rate borne by the Libert
bonds These hard-and-fast conditions wer
protested at the time-not only by the AID
ministration, but also by members of Congress
who had given the matter due thought; AM
now the necessity of m 2difying them stand
proved. Conditions which are not workabl
are as disadvantageous to the creditor as tt
the debtor.