Evening star., 1932-04-17
SEVEN SMALLER NATIONS
FACING FINANCIAL CRISES
Condition of European Countries Seen
Back of Movement to Protect
American Investments.

Gently offered Greece a $4,000, 900 loan,
but Venizelos said II would be refused
unless accompanied by a fve-year
moratorium on annual payments for
interest and redemption
Bulgaria Faces Crisis.
/ When Premier Venizelos had finished
portraying Greece's vicissitudes, NJ
Stephanof1, speaking for Bulgaria. in
formed the League Council that his
country could pay only so per cent of
the scheduled transfers on its foreign
debts from April to September. Bull
garia was anxious to be included in the
t1ve-poWer Danubian customs union, but
France opposed her entry Bulgarians
are chiefly dependent for economic ex-
istence on export markets in Central
Europe. Their fortunes are therefore
bound up with those of the Central and
Eastern European states which it was
proposed to link together in the Da-
nublan confederation Bulgaria faces
heavy national deficit for the budget
year 1928, just as the United States
does, but without the sources of DOS
sihle revenue about to be ruthlessly tap
ped in this country.
Czechoslovakia, the highly industrial
lied Central European country, had
MN NOllpdl dtAFCly well II1E
earlier period of world depression. but
has become seriously endangered of
late by the impoverished condition Of
its principal ustomers-Germany Aus
tria, Hungary, Poland Rumania and
Jugoslavia. The establishment of
tariffs in Great Britain deals Czecho-
slovakian export trade a serious blow
No one of the lands which expected to
be in the Danubian confederation need
ed its proposed common benefits more
than Czechoslovakia. few weeks ago,
to meet urgent treasury emergencies at
Prague, France granted the Czechoslo-
vaklan government a new loan of SIS
100000. Uncle Sam has an immense
financial stake in Czechoslovakia. The
latter's World War debt is down on
our books for $4,000 900. Despite
unfavorable developments in 1881,
Czechoslovakia's commercial position
continues to be superior to that of
other Central European countries Her
export business, up to the arrival of
critical economic conditions all around
her, bore up amazingly well.
Rumania Gets Worse.
Rumania's finances have grown stead
debt of $66, 900, 900. Many other mil
AAOAAo Va dOAAoAo dAC All NdA AOhO
commercial undertakings The latest
cabinet crisis at Bucharest revolved
around a scheme to permit farmers
short-term debts to provincial banks
ESTIMATED to total $4,000, ,000) to be
transferred into a 30-year debt to the
state. To finance the plan a burden
some new tax on immovable property
was to be imposed each year for the
next five years. The Rumanian Bank
/ ing Association, opposing the plan, pre-
| dicted immediate ruin of hundreds Of
/ the countrys banks if 1t were carried
/ out.
| Jugoslavia, which has q funded
| World War debt of $62, ,0o0. 900 on the
| United States Treasury's books and
| large sums of American dollars invested
in her private concerns of various sorts,
is immersed in the same general plight
depressing nearby European countries.
Jugoslavia, too, craved the erection OF
the Danubian confederation, so that
tariff walls might be broken down and
easier markets found for Jugoslavian
agricultural products. The Bank for
International Settlements at Basel Is
giving Jugoslavia a 90-day extension on
SO 900 900 of credits payable shortly.
The governmental confabs now taking
place in Washington, with view to the
protection of endangered American
capital in Europe, may eventuate in the
setting up of Council of American
Foreign Bondholders" 1t may be only
a coincidence, but the man who has
lust suggested its formation, Allen w.
Dulles. arrived in Geneva yesterday
with Secretary Stimson. to become an
adviser to the American delegation at
the Disarmament Conference Mr..
Dulles now in private law practice at
New York. is a former State Depart
ment official with special experience
and knowledge of Central and South
eastern European affairs He holds that
present and future American investing
conditions require some organization
capable of vigorous defense of our
interests under such critical circum-
stances as those now existing.
tCopyrisht. 1922