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Show A Bit of History From Chester, England, comes the protest: "You are poinf? to inform your countrymen of their magnificent sacrifices sacri-fices in the matter of the war debts! I wonder if you will mention, as a parallel, the amount of the repudiated loans lent by "Britain to the Southern States in the American Civil War $300,000,000 at 4'o per cent compound interest since 18G5 will amount to quite a considerable sum now." Why not mention it, if only to set the gentleman right in the matter? Britain did not lend the money. British investors lent it in the hope of gain, and if they did not know that their investments were highly speculative the fault lies with British promoters. They bet on the break-up of the Union, and lost. And they were not war debts. A strictly economic reason was behind the transaction: cotton, more important to her then than coal, iron or oil. To protect their supply of raw material British financiers lent the proponents of slavery more than mere moral support, and lost by it and took theii losses manfully. Britain prefers that her attitude and some of her maneuvers in that critical period be forgotten. |