NEWS OF THE WEEK
REGRETTABLE as is the necessity for introducing an emergency Bill to meet the threatened German default on the Dawes and Young loans, the House of Commons presented an almost united front in supporting the main position of the Government. On Another page of this issue appears an article discussing the merits of this controversy, and Germany's ability and honourable obligation to discharge this debt. It is a debt in no Sense comparable with our debt to the United States, it is the small residuum of what she has undertaken to pay after enormous debt concession have already been made to her, an amount which she could easily meet but for her own deliberate action, equivalent, as Mr. Chamberlain pointed out, to currency depreciation. If this act of bad faith on Germany's part were allowed to pass without strong action, any future attempts to come to international settlements with embarrassed nations would be prejudiced at the outset. Every bond Would be suspect. International credit would cease to exist. Hence the general agreement with the drastic. Plan of the Government to set up a Clearing Office for the collection of the whole or part of the value of goods imported from a defaulting country, the proceeds to be applied to the discharge of the debt.
