The Talks on Debts Mr. Roosevelt's invitation to Sir Ronald
Lindsay to see him and discuss the general situation before the Ambassador left for England is of good omen. All the signs indicate that the essential part of the coming conversations regarding debts will be conducted by the President-Elect and the chief British representative (who, it may be hoped, will be the Prime Minister) as man to man, and it is therefore altogether to the good that Sir Ronald Lindsay should is able to tell the Cabinet precisely what is in Mr. Roosevelt's private mind. Misgivings have been unnecessarily
expressed on both sides of the Atlantic at the tendency of America to make stipulations about the gold standard, and of this country to demur at anticipating World Conference decisions in the Washington talks. All such matters as these will straighten themselves out when the negotiators meet face to face. There is everything to be gained by frank discussions with the United States regarding conditions for the return to the gold standard, and while no World Conference issues can or should be decided in advance, it would, as Mr. Chamberlain observed on Wednesday, be enormously valuable if America and ourselves went into the conference
with a common aim.
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