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Show HOW WILL ALLIES PAY DEBT? England and France Said to Be In Peculiar Position of Financial Distress. England's foreign investments are not owned by the government, but by individuals, and they will not sell; and there seems as yet no way to compel them. American securities are the only ones that appeal to the British Brit-ish and French Investors at this moment mo-ment as being good. What no nnanciai eiin:". , dieted was the amazing trouble that England and France would have In paying for the equipment purchased In this country. It has been' thought that these two creditor nations would merely have to sell their foreign securities, se-curities, or merely stop making foreign for-eign investments, to have all the money they needed. Sir George Parish Par-ish a representative of the British treasury, came to this country last winter and boastfully told his 'interviewers 'inter-viewers and hosts that England could fight on for five years merely on the interest from its foreign investments an assertion that Sir George probably proba-bly wishes be had never made. Even Lloyd-George formerly spoke of the $5,000,000,000 and the $2,000,000,000 this country and Argentina respectively respec-tively owe Great Britain; but ne Das long since change 'his tune. England and France are in a position of peculiar pecu-liar financial distress, Albert W. At-wood At-wood asserts in the Saturday Evening Post. They are buying war equipment in this country on a gigantic scale. They are exporting practically nothing to this country, and their inhabitants will not or cannot sell American securities se-curities back to America. They have nothing to pay with but gold, and they cannot afford to lose gold. France is in an even more embarrassing embar-rassing position. She has gone mad i for years over epargnes savings. I rrK nnrrn Trvonchman would rather go without clothes and food at the present moment than sell his American Ameri-can securities at a loss. A friend of mine in New York recently received a letter from a French banker in which it was said that only one thing gave his clients une grande quietude at the present moment, and that was their holdings of American stocks and bonds. Wherever you go In France today you will find American investments held intact; for the Frenchman will tell you that if he sells others will do the same, and that would put down the price of American securities "which would never do." |
