Parlianient Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes:—War Debts have been the preoccupation
when they have not been the business of Parliament during the week. A small Section of members have favoured default, on the ground that giVen the temper of Congress, default is inevitable later and may as well take place sooner. They do not want us to be the " pay-boy of the Western World." An equally small section have taken the high and mighty. line of " pay and be damned." A very large section want to pay only if this country can collect from its debtors, and an equally large section take the Government's view that it is worth while making a single payment without disturbing the Lausanne agreements on the chance that a new agreement can be reached with the U.S.A. before next June. Feelings in all these sections, small and large, have run very high, and even if they now die down, they may be expected to revive when the Budget is presented. Another very unpleasant business which has repeatedly figured at question-time is the dispute with Persia about the Abadan oil-fields. One does not like to think what might have happened if the machinery of the League of Nations had not existed. As things are, the Government's policy of using that machinery has satisfied the whole House.
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