News of the Week
The Debts of the Nations SINCE Saturday last the spirits of both hemispheres have risen in a way that has no exact parallel that we can remember. The change has been almost com- parable to that sense of relief which suffused men's souls on St. Martin's Day, 1918. We have written a leading article on the proposals made to the nations by the President of the United States, and here we need only chronicle the events. The German Cabinet and, no doubt, our own and others, with the heads of the central and international banks were aware that Germany had reached the end of her tether financially. The Reichsbank would be driven to close its doors. Germany would collapse, and who would not be brought down with her ? The apparently desperate position was laid before the Executive of the only nation that could initiate a move in the opposite direction to that in which the world was rapidly moving.
