Evening star., 1924-12-08
DAWES DEBT PLAN
ADVOCACY GROWS
Same Treatment as Given
Reparations Urged by
Trade Leaders.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Powerful American business inter
ests are moving in the direction of a
Dawes plan" for settlement of inter-
allied Indebtedness, including the
$4,000, 100000 which Europe owes
the United States Treasury. Their
scheme has received immense i'm
petus from the current discussion OF
Frances tentative funding negotia-
tions in Washington and British de-
mands to receive most favored ma
ton" treatment at our hands. The
men at the head of the American sec
ton of the International Chamber of
Commerce are the ones advocating an
American European round-table dis
cussion of the whole war-debt prob
lem They declare that problem is
intimately wrapped up with the rep
arations question They insist that
adjustment of reparations on the ba-
sis OF the Dawes report was a long,
but only the preliminary, stage on
the road to world restoration. Until
the next stage is tackled and dealt
with-namefy, a. general adjustment
OF interallied indebtedness-the work
SO well begun by the Dawes plan will
only be half done.
May BE Parley Topic.
There is authoritative reason to
believe that. unless diplomacy has
come to grips with the debt situation
meantime, IL will be the main subject
OF discussion at the next meeting OF
the International Chamber of Com
merce. This will take place in Brus-
sells in June, 1925. An American
Willis H. Booth, vice president OF the
Guaranty Trust Co., Of New York
is president OF the international
attf al
vocate of the ALLEGATION of indebt-
edness due to creditor nations in such
manner. and with proper relations
to their debts one to the other, that
the amount so received may pay the
maximum of indie ebtedness. Another
supporter of the idea of an interna-
tional round table adjustment of war
debts Is A. c. Bedford. president OF
the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey
and chairman of the American sec
ton of the International chamber
Still another apostle of general re-
consideration and settlement Of the
war debts is John H Fahey Of Bos-
ton, former president of the Cham
Der of Commerce of the United States
and now member of it's executive
committee
Young Backs Plan.
Probably the most important ad-
vocate OF international consideration
Of interallied Indebtedness is Owen
d. Young. president Of the Genera
Electric Co. and principal coadiutor
of Gen. Dawes in formulation of the
Dawes plan. Mr.. Young has recently
reached the United States after tenn
Porary service as agent general
under the German reparations scheme
It Is known to this writer that Mr.
Young holds a Dawes debt plan" to
be not only feasible. but perhaps in
evitable. He is one of the keen
American economic minds that are
watching the working out of German
reparation payments from the stand
point of whether their continuance
on an enormous scale, as the Dawes
plan contemplates. may turn out to
be permanently sound from the allied
viewpoint. There are shrewd au-
tnortties who have grave doubts on
that score, who fear a world wild e
financial upset as certain conse-
Quence sooner or later. II they have
such a result, these authorities say,
it will be warning to America not
to press or expect her European
debtors to send billions of gold to
this country. Meantime. experts be-
lieve 1t would serve the interests of
all concerned to talk matters over at
a Joint conference.
The international Chamber of Com
meIce claims, at it's Rome meeting
in 1923, to have laid the foundations
upon which the European govern
ments eventually made the plans for
the Dawes report. The avowed pur-
pose Is to blaze the way for a solu-
tion of the war debts situation on
more or less Identical lines.
Bedford Gives Views.
Some plain speaking on the subject
came the other day from A. c. Bed
ford, the Standard Oil Company ex-
ecutive. He said:
THE Dawes plan applies by impli-
the payment of German reparations.
1t has a very direct bearing upon the
problem of the interallied debts.
Now, we sometimes don't like to dis
cuss that. We seem to think 1t is
settled. But 1t is not settled. 1t is
the next problem, and 1t has got to
come. If the operation of the Dawes
slan shows that huge sums cannot
Be transferred without great damage
to the recipients, we will have an
actual demonstration upon which to
base a reconsideration of the whole
problem of interallied debts. This
problem can never be settled upon any
theoretical basis. Therefore It Is Of the
most transcendent Importance that we
are to have an actual exhibition of
what can be done. Clearly the world
cannot feel that commerce Is back to
a normal basis until we know exactly
what is to be done with these questions
of reparations and iDterallied debts"
John H. F'ahey. speaking at Indian
apolis in November. said
Great Britain owes US something
less than $4,000, 100000: France some
thing under $4,000. 100000. But France
owes almost the same sum to Great
Britain; Belgium, in turn, owes to
France as much as she owes to us. and
she owes to US. Russia is a tremendous
debtor to France. Therefore, the ques-
ton that must finally and inevitably
arise is who Is going to be paid first and
under what circumstances. Likewise, If
some of these debts must be sacrificed
In order to bring a settlement. who Ia
to make the sacrifice and in what de-
gree? I suggest no solution. But
1 do venture the suggestion that the
final solution will not be found until
again, as in the case Of German repara-
tions, the nations come together around
the common conference board for united
action. Enlightened, broadminded ma
tionalism must replace the narrow, con-
fined nationalism we have seen for the
past five years"
Copyright, 1e24.)