Evening star., 1932-11-25
Now Up to Europe.


cards on the table face up, the mex
play Is Europe's. She has until De-
cember is to make UP her mind whai
the play will be. The common ex'
pectation in the United States Is tha
Europe viii play tr,lmps-that she vii
meet the obligations then due, with
wry face, perhaps, and in a spirit o.
disappointment. but meet them just th'
same. Se,f-interest for great creditor
nations like Grsat Britain and France
justifes no other course. The E-itish
with va-t investments, on which the
sun never sets, and the French, with
capital locked up in borrowers hands
throughout the world. can i'll afford tc
set their own debtors an example OF
default or reputation.
Voices nevertheless are raised In both
London and Paris In favor Of such
action. The Beaverbrook press. mani
festly seeking to embarrass the Mac
Donald Baldwin coalition government
shrisks In q page wide headline the un-
authorized news" that Britain has al
ready decided not to pay. French MEM
bers of the Chamber of Deputies openly
menace the Herriot government with a
no-confidence vote and downfall If 1t
attempts to secure the passage of a
s2o, 10000 appropriation to meet
Frances mid-December payment at
Washington Lesser European debtors,
who have also asked for q moratorium,
like Poland, Belgium and Czechoslo-
vakia, may be expected to follow in the
footsteps Of Great Britain and France,
should these more important countries
decide to make o virtue of necessity
and square accounts here three weeks
hence.
Influential politicians like Sir Robert
Horne, chancellor of the British ex-
chequer when the Baldwin, set
tlement was made in 1928, are urging
payment of the British Semi-annuity of
SOS, 900 in gold from the Bank of
England and suggest incidental puni-
tive measures against America, such as
the diversion of British purchases to
countries which also have gone of the
gold standard, thus permitting pay
ments In sterling without the loss in
volved In dollar payments to the United
States. Sir Robert chides America for
delaying world economic recovery and
blocking the advance toward co-opera-
tive effort to that end"
Such expressions scorn the suggestion
made by President Hoover In his debts
statement on Wednesday. and doubtless
reiterated In the notes to the debtor
nations which are about to be pub
hshed. To make things easier for
governments with deprecated curren-
cies, like the British pound. the Presi-
dent said that II extraordinary circum-
stances render immediate transfer Of
the December Is payments in dollars
impossible to some nations without
losses" the United States might be
willing to consider delayed payments
on account, transfers to be made from
time to time, with guarantees on cur
rency values that would eventually
safeguard the United States against
any actual losses in dollars. Presum-
ably, the assent of Congress to this
method of payment would be required,
as to all and sundry debt dealings.
His statement having been withheld
until he had consulted congressional
leaders, it seems reasonable to conclude
thst neither House nor Senate would
balk so rair a concession as President
Hoover here proposes.
Not many more days will go by be-
fore the light will be shed on this and
ether debt points. Meantime, and there
after, no better advice can be given the
American people than to urge them to
pursue their studies of the whole COM
plicated debt problem. Eminent Eng
nshmen, like the Marques of Reading
and Lord Lee of Farehan, are beseech-
ing their own people to view that prob-
lem without passion and exclusively on
its merits. Americans cannot afford to
let Europeans outstrip them in that
fundamental duty. 1t is not the time
for parish-pump politics.