Sharp Exchange

Right Honorable Members of the House of Commons listened last week like eager theatregoers to a sharp exchange of statements concerning the international debt situation, which might easily be reproduced as a three-speech playlet.

THE CAST

Interlocutor--The Right Honorable Philip Snowden, P.C.,* M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Macdonald Laborite Government (1924). Respondent--The Right Honorable Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, P.C.,* C.H.,/- Chancellor of the Exchequer in the present Baldwin Conservative Government. Harlequin--John Joseph Jones, M.P. from West Ham, famed as "Jumping Jack Jones" (TIME, April 7, 1924). THE PLAYLET

Mr. Snowden: "The financial record of France, during the last seven years especially, is one of the most discreditable in the history of national finance. . . .

"France owes us nearly -L-700,000,000 and has made no attempt to meet her obligations. . . .

"France has never faced the question of taxing her people to meet her national requirements. By permitting France and Italy not to pay their debts while imposing on the British taxpayer the annual sums which those countries ought to pay, we are in fact subsidizing out of the pockets of the British the severe competition of France and Italy against British goods. We are paying America -L-34,000,000 a year and this will rise to -L-38,000,000 a year. The amount the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to find for payment of the American debt represents ninepence in the pound on the income tax, and will do so for the next 60 years.

"The United States is a friendly country and I do not wish to say anything which can be regarded as either disrespectful or disagreeable to that great country. But I want to put the facts. America came into the War two and a half years after its outbreak, and during that time she was very busily and very profitably engaged in making war material for the Allies."

Mr. Churchill: "Many of my Right Honorable friend's accusations are such that I agree with them as an individual, but must disagree with them as Chancellor of the Exchequer [Laughter]. . . .

"It is a very remarkable fact that at the present moment the amount that the United States is receiving from Europe is approximately equal to the whole amount of reparations which Germany is paying. But distribution of the receipts from Germany and payment to the United States are entirely different. The bulk of the receipts from Germany go to France, who at present is making no payments on account of her debts, and the bulk of the payments to the United States is being made by Great Britain largely out of her own resources. . . .

"We expect to obtain -L-12,500,000 annually from France; we have a firm undertaking from Italy of -L-4,000,000 annually, and what may be collected from the minor powers is estimated at, say, -L-2,000,000. If Germany pays three-quarters of the reparations under the Dawes scheme, which seems a perfectly prudent and reasonable basis on which to found ourselves, that will be -L-15,000,000.

"On this computation, which is a reasonable view of what may be obtained in the near, or not too distant, future, we should be receiving almost -L-35,000,000 yearly. We at present are paying -L-30,000,000 yearly to the United States. Probably by the time all this is fully gathered in we shall be paying -L-38,000,000, or be within a few years of having to pay it. ...

"Great Britain, that is to say, must pay to the U. S. -L-100,000 daily (roughly half a million dollars) through three generations, constituting the most stupendous transaction in history. . . . [Moreover] reparations from the devastated and war-stricken countries of Europe will pass in an unbroken stream across the Atlantic to the wealthy and prosperous and great republic.

"I believe these facts will not pass out of the minds of any responsible persons either in the United States or Europe."

Jumping Jack Jones: "Hurray! Britannia rules the waves! Britannia won the War!" Simultaneously with these pronouncements, the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury was speaking upon the same subject at Philadelphia. (See NATIONAL AFFAIRS.)

*Privy Councilor. /-Companion of Honor.