Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-21
WAR DEBT REFUND TO u. S.
EOPARDIZED BY BAD TIMES
Suspension or Reduction by Germany
Would Result in France and Italy
Hating Remittances.

! payments, the British government OF
! the hour, whether Labor or Tory, would
| be compelled by popular pressure and
political necessity to approach Wash
| ington, asking for new terms or very
great accommodations. And refusal
would almost certainly be met by the
frank confession of inability.
Prolongation of the present period OF
depression in Europe thus almost in
evitably presages the raising of the
question of allied debts again, and the
existence of hard times in the United
States insures that any such happening
will be excessively unwelcome. More
over it is natural that the President
and his advisers should view with dis
pleasure any suggestion of an Ameri-
can Senator which might serve to en-
courage European proposal.
In this connection it is patent that
in two respects recent American deci-
sions have accentuated British and con-
tinental resentments born of the debt
issue For Europeans there are but
two methods of meeting the American
obligations, first by goods and secondly
by services To be sure Germany has
found temporary relief through Ameri-
can loans, but this source Is not only
temporary, but has recently almost
completely dried up.
New Warnings Provoked.
The course of Congress, on the one
hand, through its tariff legislation de-
liberately intended to reduce the flow
of European goods into the American
market, and, on the other, to expand
the American merchant marine by sub
sides, thus diminishing the European
returns on their own shipping engaged
in the transport of American produc-
ton, has aroused European protest and
provoked new warnings.
It Is, too, Germany that has the
whole burden of reparations to carry,
and Britain that is still responsible for
three quarters of present debt payments
which are most Immediately affected
by the American policy. Nevertheless,
despite senatorial warning, it is unlikely
that Washington will, in any near fu-
ture, receive any official request for
new discussion Of debts. Europe will,
in all probability, await the experience
of the coming Winter.
Moreover, we are already seeing on
the Continent a number of more or
less unconnected efforts to establish a
system of reciprocity between certain
industrial and agricultural states, and
at the same time other attempts to
establish and extend cartel systems In
industrial states. Back of all this lies
the double purpose to reduce European
purchases in America and limit the
sharpness of competition between Eu-
ropean states. Even behind the pan
European idea of M. BRAND there turks
a Subliminal thought of common action
against the American rival. Concomi-y
family within the British Empire there
Is going forward the double process,
the effort to establish an imperial tariff
system and the attempts of various
dominions to reduce American imports.
Same Effort Manifested.
AL these things are manifestations Of
the same effort to escape from the con-
sequences Of world depression. If good
times return the present anti-Ameri-
can sentiment, which finds expression
in tariff policies, is likely to diminish.
On the other hand, II depression con-
tinues, not only are tariff offensives
well nigh inevitable, but sooner or later
the debt question will be brought to
the fore.
AS have said these debt settlements
represented a bet upon the return of
European prosperity, If Europe became
prosperous We won the bet, but at the
moment Europe is, in the main, even
farther from prosperity than America,
hence the once familiar doubts as to
debt payments are cropping UP again
in Europe and being discovered by the
itinerant congressional Columbus,
tCopyright, 1902