The Administration inclination side step the war debt Issue is based upon the realization that a solution Impossible. Public and Congressional opinion is definitely opposed to reduction and war debt "countries; cannot pay the debis until they are reduced. The suggestion "Let's stablllze currencies and start international trade moving so that the debts will no longer be a burden or a problem"
therefore one which officials find appealing.
The European war stare has removed the last vestiges of hope for a debt settlement. The debtor coun-{eles are building up their armaments with money which is apparently quite easy to obtain while the money to pay the United States is said to be fu Intolerable burden. These foreign. countries apparently want to make a cut-rate bargain with the United Stales, at the expense of the United States taxpayer, in order to be able to borrow more money (which of course wont be paid back) so: that they can fight another war.
may be to reach an agreement on However ready the Adminstration the question of war debis with fernier Allies Congress will prove adamant, prominent Congressman's obiter dictum is worthy of a place beside Calvin Coolidge's "They hired the money didn't they"? He dismissed the whole problem with, "The way {o settle the debt question is to pay {he debis." Another way Is to forget Both the man in the street and his. rural compatriot on the wool station are becoming impatient of the Secrecy that continues to enshroud the negotiations to end the trade dis pute with Japan, and a section of the Country Party, which supports the Government, is openly simmer-Ing with discontent. The principl of the new tariff are generally approved, but the manner of conduct-Ing the negotiations is as widely condemned. The Australian elector ards the politician as: servant not master, and expects to be taken into the Government's confidence, He strongly disapproves of discussions behind closed doors, and unless the Minister. for Trade Treaties, Sir Henry Gullet, brings the issue' to a satisfactory conclusion he may soon be called to account.
From the beginning of the dispute the Government has been more than discreet. Protests by wool growers, exporters of wheat and flour, the Labour Party and other interes concerned have been stided by peals to patriotism, and the more Gangerous critics have been placated by. fudiclous applications of Yeonfidential information." The negotin~ Hons still hang fire, and nobody ix setisted that the Government has not bungled the whole affair.
However, the Government has been materially assisted by the success of the wool sales, The first of the series, in Sydney, revealed a demand from European buyers, who have been absent for several Prices, on the whole, were sailsfactory, and were sustained at the Melbourne sales last week. Tt has also been stated repeatedly, thous on doubtful authority, that Japanese buyers have been operating privately in the Riverina, and two Japanese ships which were taken off the Autralian run have resumed their Schedules, This is regarded as the first definite indication that the end of the dispute is now in sight,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.