An American's Complimentary Criticism Mr. Acheson Shortis, who was recently financial adviser to the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission, and is now vice-president of the Guarantee Trust Company of New York, made, upon his arrival in New York recently, a statement on Britain's financial position. Mr. Shortis thought such a statement desirable, because an impression still prevailed in less well-informed quarters of the United States that it is unn to discriminate in regard to the respective economic positions of the Allies) He pointed out that of Britain's total War expenditure, £11,000,000,000, no less than £4,000,- 000,000, or more than one-third of the total, had been raised during the War by revenue, and that, allowing for a reasonable estimate the proportion of our advances to the Allies and Dominions which will ultimately be repaid, our remaining debt will not amount to more than one and a half times the amount so raised by revenue.
Mr. Shortis summed up our present situation as follows:—''Takit the situation in general, the position of Great Britain cannot be regarded as unfavourable, although the fact that sterling, expressed in United States currency, shows a depreciation of more than 20 per cent. may be taken as an indication that the credit of Great Britain is severely impaired. But - people who are well acquainted with the ha actual economic position and the reasons for the present love) of exchange are, of course, aware of the cause. It is not that Great Britain is not prepared to pay its debt to the United States, for it possesses plenty of assets, but it does not, unfortunately, possess any tangible assets which can be removed from Great Britain to the United States. It is, therefore, necessary to wait until such time as she can export or render services in sufficient quantities to produce a trade balance in her favour."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.