The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-12-02

London hinted that if forced to pay, Britain might increase it's tar- ifs against American goods. / It argued that economic chaos would result from failure to approve re- vision.
 Senator McNary, Ore. high in republican councils, said: T am not in favor of considering argu- ments for reduction now. I be- lieve December payments should be met, and then discussion, if any, undertaken"
 Senator Norris, repn, Neb, in- surgent leader, said he doubted congress would take any action at all before the payment was due. Rep McFadden, repn, Pa, de- clared the 5,O0O-word British note, made public last night by the state department, contained nothing new. He asserted ''the congress and the people of the United States are op- posed to reducing the amount Of debt payments to the United States"
 This government can make no definitive answer to the British note until congress says "pay" or "postponement granted"
 lHc IIltlSH I1ciu LudL WdE oCDIo were clutching world commerce with a dead hand. They de- clared that the fall in international trade was costing the world $o,- 000,000 per hour.
 1t will not profit creditor country to collect few million pounds or dollars if it thereby per- petuates a world disorder which, cao nn ifcn1f inunIuaa 1nCcaa of revenue many times greater" the note said.
 London held that 1t could make the December payment only in gold and that the gold supply of the Bank of England was mo more than sufficient for the responsibili- ties of London as a financial cen- ter"
 |. The note did not say positively whether Britain would. or would not, pay on December 15 if COIL gross refused to allow postpone ment.
 The British argument for revision was based on the contention that commerce and industry cannot be stimmulated until the burden of in- tergovernmental debts is lifted.
 Further, London maintained, in it's own special case, that British payments, amounting to 80 per cent of the entire amount America has received on war debts, entitled 1t to apply for revision with clean hands.
 The note indicated that if Amer ica insisted on payment the British tariffs might have to be raised to create a favorable trade balance, thus hurting U. $. exports.
 America's claim that war debts and separations are not connected was disputed. The note argued that since the former allies had freed Germany of reparations, they could not pay their own debts on the scale now established. If America insists on collecting war debts, Britain warned, the Lau- same separations settlement cap- not be ratified.
 The note said, in part:
 "The causes of the depression may be manifold but it has been generally recognized that war debts and separations have been one of the major causes and that a set- clement of these debts, which will relieve world anxieties under this head is an indispensable condition of revival of general prosperity.
 Repayment of these war debts necessitates unnatural transfers which provoke widespread econ omic evil. :.
 "The baneful effects of un- natural transfers in respect of reparations and war debts have gravely accentuated the difficult ties of all five continents confidence and credit cannot revive until an end has been put to these attempts to force the stream of capital to flow uphill ''The loss which both the United Kingdom and the United States tax payers would suffer from recon sideration of the war debts cannot be measured in the same scales as the untold loss of wealth and human misery caused by the pres- ent economic crisis.
 ssTha valua of internattoua1 tra de