What We Owe America In the House of Commons this
week Mr. Chamberlain stated that, after the Anglo-American trade agreement, there is not the slightest " source of difficulty or difference " with America. Mr. Chamberlain appears to have forgotten a little matter of some $9,000,000,000 which we owe in war debt to the United States ; another speech of his, dwelling on the respect aroused by our immense financial resources, last week drove a somewhat irritated American, publisher of the New York Inquirer, to suggest that the ' Queen Mary ' should be seized by court order as part payment of the debt. Last week, in fact, the date for our annual instalment, unpaid since 1933, of capital and interest fell due : instalment of principal outstanding is $165,000,000, and interest $817,949,481, a total of some £210,000,000. The Acting Secretary of State, making the annual request for payment, was told by the British Chargé d'Affaires in Washington that Great Britain was willing to discuss the debt question " when- ever circumstances are such as to warrant the hope that a satisfactory result will be reached." The sooner these circumstances are judged to have arisen the better. There is no doubt that America would agree to a substantial reduction of the debt ; and in any case this country, which expresses righteous indignation at the defaults of other countries, like Germany and Mexico, should go to the limit of her capacity in removing a serious obstacle to the establishment of com- plete goodwill between the British and American peoples.
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