"Make an end of Reparations!"

A verse-maker of sorts is Sir William Thomas White, Canada's famed Wartime Minister of Finance. In Toronto last week he made and solemnly handed to reporters a verse about something extremely close to the hearts of most Britons: cancellation of War debts.

"I have always felt that the only effectual appeal to the American people . . ." said Sir Thomas, "must be to their idealism. It was in this spirit that my verses were written." Verses:

Oh, war debts and reparations, You're a blight on all the nations, You embitter their relations, You're the chief of all causations Of their woes and tribulations, Of the problems that perplex them, Of the ills that grieve and vex them, Of the burdens that oppress them, And the sufferings that distress them, The anxieties that fret them, And the dangers that beset them!

You have caused world-wide privation, Unemployment, want, starvation, Trade and industry stagnation; You have caused humiliation, Hatred and recrimination, Anger and denunciation, Vehement expostulation, Armament, war preparation!

Let us with sincere intention

Call forthwith a world convention,

With no national abstention,

For the sake of war-prevention,

To remove this grave contention

And save future intervention;

For the sake of world salvation,

Welfare and conciliation,

Peace and rehabilitation,

By a great renunciation,

Sacrifice and abnegation,

With profound commiseration

Touching men's imagination,

Bring about emancipation,

Debt release and cancellation,

Make an end of reparations,

Lift the yoke that bows the nations!

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