Finance Public & Private Democracy and Debts Ix this short
article I want to get away from what may be termed the rights and wrongs of the War Debt problems and to draw attention rather to an aspect of the matter which I think deserves attention, namely, the difference which so frequently exists between what may be termed the view of the executive of a Govern- ment and that which is taken by opposing politicians and by the mass of the people. I do not suppose, for example, that I should be far wrong if I were to say that if the problem of inter-govern- mental War Debts had to be settled round a table at which the representatives of the various Governments were gathered—those representatives, moreover, being without the -fear of censure by rival• politicians in their respective countries—the problem, making all allowance for the different national interests represented, would speedily be settled. I do not say that this would always be so at the early stage of a controversy, but in a case such as the present where the administrators of the different countries -have had time and opportunity for noting the events of the years during which the con- troversy has been raging there would, I think, be little difficulty in arriving at a common understanding.
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