The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-09-24

washington.--The eventual fate of war debts and reparations is anybody's guess, but extension of the one-year moratorium has come to be regarded here as a probabil- ity.
 The pressure being brought on President Hoover to call for 8 pro- longation of the debt holiday by from two to four years is the sort of pressure used to bring about the moratorium in the first place. The
 same arguments are being used and they seem likely to prove as irresistible as they did before.
 Hoover refuses to declare him. self on such an extension now, but nothing comes out of the White House tending to show that he really expects payments of debts and separations to be resumed next year after his 12 months of grace. The reasons for postponing such a declaration until well into 1892 are, at least from his point of view, more cogent than those of the international bankers who hold that continuing abnormal conditions make 1t advisable that the world be told at once of the prospective respite.
 It certainly would not be expe- dient even to admit such a pos sibility in advance of the conven- ing of congress in December or Of the Geneva arms conference In February. The country as a whole is concedediy opposed to debt can cellation and in a campaign year the proposal for moratorium ex- tension is sure to be bounced upon by many members of congress as the first step in a program 1nevit- ably leading to cancellation. From an International standpoint Hoover ia handing Europe a nice little present when he grants a tempo rary remission of debts. It is xxi omatic in international politics that you don't give away some thing for nothing unless compell- ed. Hoover therefore must get whatever he can from Europe in return for an extension of the debt holiday. If this country is to in- fuence the disarmament confer ence importantly, as the adminis- tration hopes, 1t can well use such q fine trading point as the exten- sion. For some time it has been
 widely believed here that the president would undertake at Gen. eva to link the American debt at- titude with the position of Euro pean armaments and lately unof- ficial word from the White House has indicated that Hoover would propose no extension until
 Europe had put its political house
 in order. especially with reference to the Franco-German row which
 threatens to so on forever. The problem is ticklish and
 Hoover will weigh any future step
 with extreme care. as is always his I course in contemplating any im- portant move. His method of ap- preaching the debt situation will be triply designed to collect all that can safely be salved from the
 debt funding agreements, to create the best possible political effect at
 home and to prevent any economic 1 disaster in Europe which would
 retard general recovery or deepen
 the existing depression.
 Just a brief space back the
 moratorium was being hailed as a stroke which haved the world and which made the Hoover chances of reelection better than even. But
 the world is calm again and still in poor economic shape. Bankers and
 others recognize the moratoriums as only temporary palliative which must be stretched out if it Is to do any permanent good. The