Eureka Reporter | 1906-06-22 | Page 5 | Nations Deep in Dept

DEEP DEPT the foreign debt of colombia has been in existence for eighty three sears says the monthly review dur ing approximately forty seven of which no interest was paid the cor respond ling figures for guatemala honduras and venezuela respectively are seventy eight and forty eight sev enty eight and seventy ta and eighty three and toi tyone cota rica and nicaragua have benefited by intervals during which they owed nothing to the foreign bond holder nevertheless the external debt of the first aas been in default for thirty tears out of forty seven while nicaragua paid nothing for forty nine years out of sixty six salvador neglected her share of the old debt of the central american fed aeration from 1827 to with the exception of a single lapse her subsequent record is good and she now occupies the happy position of having no regular foreign debt santo domingo began her financial connection with the outside world by a loan issued in 1869 she has since then off and on been in default tor about twenty two years some two years ago colombia Is used from a protracted civil war sha has since lost panama while the expenses of the war were met by the short sighted expedient ot issuing forced currency As a result she now finds herself saddled with a debt in notes reaching the enormous total of nearly at one time the rate of exchange tor the paper dollar touched 25 per cent but by legislative enact ment the parity between gold and pa per was fixed not long ago in respect of government transactions at the relatively moderate figure of 10 per cent even this means that colombia dollar represents only ad or 4 cent and the brain whirls at the thought of the equivalent n currency of the which she will in future have to pay each year lor the service of her foreign debt