Evening star., 1932-12-25
BY WILLIAM HARD.

As these words are written, Mr.
Franklin Deleno Roosevelt, President
elect, continues to decline to join him.
self to the Hoover administration In ne
gotiations with cur European debtors
1t is nevertheless not believed here that
this situation can or will remain in its
present posture. 1t Is on the contrary
believed fimly here in many expe-
rienced quarters that in some way o,
another the President and the Presi-
dent-elect soon will be found cooper
ating in some degree toward presenting
a united American front to the Difficult
ties which our European debtors have
raised for us.
This result may emerge from some
new proposal forwarded by President
Hoover to Mr.. Roosevelt or 1t may result
from some counter proposal dispatched
bv Mr.. Roosevelt to President Hoover
In any case it is thought here that the
necessities of the occasion will compel q
concert of views and of actions between
the incoming and outgoing admlnlstra-
tions. even if both administrations are
driven to compromise in order TO
get it.
The reasons are numerous.
In the first place, there is the mat
ter of the debt installment which the
British are supposed to pay on June 10
1893. The Roosevelt administration
will not take ONCE till March 4. Not
much more than three months will
elapse between Mr.. Roosevelts inaugu-
ration and the day upon which the
British will be expected again to pay.
Il can be taken absolutely for granted
that unless negotiations with the
British for q revision Of their debt set
tlement with US are initiated and con-
GUIDED before June Is, and unless the
results of the negotiations are by June
Is debated and accepted by Congress
the amount which the British WILL pay
us on June IS will be nothing.
ON this point there is not the slight
est element OF doubt in the minds OF
American officials who have been IN
contact with British officials during the
conversations which preceded the
British debt installment payment OF
December IS.
The British have reached the last
limit OF their willingness to pay unoel
the present debt settlement arrange
ments. They will never, While those
arrangements persist. pay again. Ihey
have convinced themselves that any
further payments under those arrange
ments would be disastrous to .thelr
internal British economic life.
The total which they are scheduled
TO nav next year is some $3.50, ,00O, 600.
They have Just paid us, Oh December
is, se5,0OO,000 in gold. Their golo
reserve thereupon Is less than Sooo.-
900 900. It is not imagined by any.
body of intimate information here that
next year the British will go into gold
reserve Of 100000 and diminish 1t
by $3.50, 10000 in order to satisfy the
letter of an obligation to the United
States Treasury.
avoided, with all of its potential dis
agreeable consequences to the credit
and to the trade of the whole world
it becomes necessary to be sure that
a British debt revision proposal OF some
sort is consummated and ratified be
fore June Is is reached on the world
diplomatic economic calendar.
It is further realized here that nego-
tiations for revision of the British
debt will be complicated and ardu-
Gus and protracted. 1t is not wlthr'
the intentions of either the outgoing or
the incoming administration 70 take
the British debt and simply shrink II
without appropriate compensatlons 70
the United States. Both Presloent
Hoover and President-elect Roosevelt
are authoritatively reported to believe
that whatever compensationS are rea-
sonably possible should be effectively
secured.
The effort to discover and to obtain
these compensationS is one which could
fill every day between now and the
NT s1hpV 10
volye a possible reduction of armamentS
the world over in order that the arma-
ments expenditures of the United States
may be safely reduced. They involve
a possible adoption by Great Britain
of a policy of quick return to the gold
standard in order that the inconven-
fences now caused to American trade by
British deprecated currency may be re.
moved. It is well known that both OF
these possible outcomeS OF negotiations
with the British have been firmly cher
ished by Hoover administration man
ayers.
II is further noted here both in
American circles and in British circles
that one of the fundamental policies
of the next Democratic administration
is to be found in Mr.. Roosevelt's en-
thusiastic adherence to the idea OF re-
ciprocal trade treaties involving mutual
tariff concessions. 1t is noted by all
who have talked with the British that
they are utterly indisposed to discuss
any return to the gold standard or
any new lowering Of trade barriers
until they decisively know what their
monetary obligations will be to the
United States Government In the whole
immediate future. They cannot be
brought to negotiate either about gold
or about trade until it is clear to them
what transfers of gold from their treas
ury to ours may be necessary.
It becomes clear accordingly that
while there is no identity between ne
eotiations about debts, negotiations
about armaments, negotiations about
the gold standard, and negotiations
about tariffs, there Is nevertheless an
ultimate connection between them all.
which binds them all into one COM