Surely there can be no possibility now of going through
a similar melancholy and humiliating farce in connexion with inter-Allied debts. Here again Mr. Churchill is on the right lines if it is true that he has repeated the Curzon offer of August, 1923, that our total claim for Allied Debts and German Reparations shall not together exceed the amount we have to pay to America. That means that we shall cancel all direct debts owed to us and shall collect only what we borrowed from America in order to pass it on to our friends. It looks handsome but it is also shrewd. Of course France wants her sum to be fixed. She cannot bear the idea of having to pay more because Germany pays less. She calls that " paying reparations for Germany." However, this point should be easily enough disposed of. The certainty that we shall be paid something, though it may not be much, and reasonable promptness in the payment of that compara- tively small sum will do more to create favourable trade conditions than any vague expectation of a larger sum.
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