That unity of purpose—which Mr. Lloyd George's philippics on the
settlement of 1923 mars only in a negligible degree—is of good omen for the future. Negotiations with the United States are the next step and it is eminently to be desired that the Government shall be able to go into them and carry them through in the knowledge. that 'it has a united nation behind it. That America shall know that too is no less important. The course of debt diplomacy in the past six months has been beset with pitfalls on every side, and Mr. Chamberlain Was justified in claiming, in Wednesday's debate, that so far as this country is concerned most or all of them have been avoided. It was right to go as far towards a general settlement as was possible at Lausanne. It was right to Pay this instalment now. It was right to make it clear that continued • payment -of the statutory instalments could not be looked for. And it was right, though possibly the phrasing of the last British Note but one on this point might have been improved on, to add that Great Britain would regard the present payment as a first instalment of the lump sum to be agreed on as final settlement.
