18 MAY 1929, Page 13

Tin , . UNITED STATES AND THE DEBTS.

Great interest continues in the discussion of Mr. Philip Snowden's .speech on the Balfour Note. Mr. Baldwin's statement in his speech on April 80th, to the effect that Great- Britain's settlement was simply a question Of keeping her word,' has received general approval here. Nothing ever done by. England increased her prestige in America so much as the handsome way in which she agreed to that settlement. There are a large number of newspapers who like the Portland Oregonian still insist that "Agitation for debt revision is supported by gross misrepresentation of the relation of the United States to the Allies in the War and of the debt settle- ments with them." "It slanders the United States." The Washington Post, likewise, has an extremely truculent editorial this week maintaining that Europe. is all wrong and America all right in this matter. Nevertheless, even so chauvinistic a group of newspapers as those published by Mr. Hearst allows their Financial Editor In dealing with the Paris neg'o- iations to broadcast a- syndicated article, in which -occurs this laconic observation : " If a breakdown does eventually occur, the reasoning here is that it is more Europe's affair than ours—a reasoning which cannot be characterized as profound."