Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29
England Distracted
By Many Troubles
BY A. G. GARDINER.


LONDON, March 2s.-Job himself
might pity John Bull in these days, so
manifold are his perplexitieS and mise
fortunes. One hardly knows where to
begin the chapter of lamentations.
Leaving aside for the moment the in
ternal diStresSes-the deepening shad-
OF of unemployment, the distintegra-
ton of the whole political structure, the
disrepute of all parties and all leaders,
the slump in trade returns and the
spectre of the coming budget disclosing
an unprecedented defcit-the external
situation is full of perilous problems
and omens of storm. The position OF a
world power in the present universal
CONFUSION is that of few assets and
all liabilities. 1t gets the worst Of every
wind that blows.
y The latest shock comes from Austria
liza, where the long threatened POSSIBLE
ity of reputation Of debts eliminated
Thursday in a declaration by Premier
Lang that New South Wales did not
intend to pay the interest on British
loans due April /. The bitterness of the
pill was aggravated by concurrent de-
cision to pay the interest on borrowings
from America and by the fact that Pre-
mier Lang refused to help the Com
monwealth Bank meet the liability to
Great Britain. Australian opinion in
London is outraged by the effrontery of
Lang's proceeding and is confident that
the commonwealth will make good the
New South Wales default, the federal
government being ultimately liable for
both commonwealth and state debts.
Although not unexpected, the shock
has caused concern in the financial dis
trict, where all Australian securities
suffered heavy drop. But it is easy
to exaggerate the gravity of the mat
ter. A strong view is held here that
Langs action is primarily directed
against Prime Minister Scullin and the
Labor government of the commonwealth
and that the incident presages a rup-
ture Of the labor movement in Austria
liza and an early election, as a result of
which Australia will repudiate Lang
and the extremists rather than the
financial obligations of the country.
q. X x X
But the mere threat of reputation
within the British commonwealth has
created much disquietude in financial
Australian securities and confidence in
the financial standards of the country
is much shaken. No doubt is felt that
the potentialitieS of Australia are so
vast that, with due economy, recovery
is assured: but Labor has run anuck,
and the question is whether the COM
mon sense of the country can get the
upper hand. A strong argument in IA
vor of reputation of Lang is that the
country must have more capital for de-
VeIopment and that none will be forth
coming until guarantees are secured
that recurrence of such an incident
as the present will be rendered impos-
Sible.
Meanwhile, the outlook in India has
been darkened once more by the de-
plorable riots in Cawnpore and by the
with reference to consti-
tutional safeguards which threatened
GandhiS severance from future confer
ences. But the London Daily News In
dian correspondent cabled Friday that
Wedgwood Bonn, secretary for India,
had promised Gandhi that safeguards
would be open for discussion and that
Endorsement of the Irwin andhi agree
ment by the Karachi Congress was
therefore probable.
The situation is still critical, however
and Winston Churchill, who is cease
less in his fanatical crusade against the
Indian settlement, is exploiting both in
ctdentS In order to arouse public hos
tility toward the conference policy of
the government.
X X X X
Another source of alarm here is the
customs union between Austria and
Germany, which has given Europe a
sort of apoplectic seizure. France Is
furious at what she affects to regard
as a breach of the Geneva protocol and
a Stealthy approach to "anschluss," or
a political union. Italy and Czechoslo-
vakia side with France. British opinion
generally favOrs any mitigation of tar
ifs and is not hostile even to IAN
schluss," but in the circumstances For
eign Minister Henderson, whose recent
success in securing a naval agreement
between Italy and France has made
him the honest broker to Europe, urges
the reference of the mater to the
League Of Nations Council a May; and