The 'Washington correspondent of the Times says that the American
Government doubts the sincerity of French protestations, and the official feeling is spreading rapidly among the American people as a whole. Indeed, there seems to be only one voice. The President spoke first, then the State Department, then private observers of personal importance like Mr. Harvey, and then Senator Reed, of Pennsylvania; who has been noted in the past for his friendly feelings towards France. On Monday, in the Senate, Senator Reed spoke with extreme frankness :— " From France itself and from Paris and from the Cabinet of the President of the Adrninistration comes a step which our people cannot fail to regard as being some evidence of an official intention to repudiate that war-time debt—the publication of a balance- sheet listing the obligations of the French Republic that absolutely Omits the debt to America or the debt to Great Britian incurred dur- ing time of war—and I do not believe that the United States Senate ought to take adjournment after the publication of that balance- sheet without some voice being raised in protest against it."
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