* * * * War Debts to the U.S.A.
Mr. Homer Cummings, the United States Attorney- General, haS given an opinion that Great Britain and the other countries, who have made token payments in respect of their debts to Washington, are not to be deemed " in default " for the' purposes of the lately-passed Johnson Act. That ruling, however, only applies, it would seem, to past token payments already made and acquiesced in, not to future ones, which, it is implied, would fail of their intended effect. We are thus brought up against the need within measurable time of coming to close quarters with an issue which has been' kept at arm's length ever since President Roosevelt took office ; indeed a message on it from the President is predicted for the near future. The time is not very opportune for us ; for opinion in the United States, as represented and guided by the popular Press, is already denouncing the British Budget surplus as " filched from Uncle Sam." The fact that it approximately equalled the unpaid Debt instalments, looks fatally impressive to those who have never grasped what the real Debt difficulty is.
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