RATHER REGRETTABLE.
How much America gained in her prosperity and trade by her three years of neutrality during the Great War is a matter of histom; I3oi2 itreatly her national revenues arc being swollen at the present time by interest on War debts from Europe is a matter of present day fact, and even on the date when this note is written, the American Treasury is receiving from Great Britain about 92,000,000 dollars, representing the half-year's interest-in Sinking Fund on the British War Debt. Our own Trade Returns and the Returns of other European countries bear melancholy testimony to the financial strain after the 'War, • yet we know that throughout the past difficult years for Europe America has blended with her demand for payment of War Debts the imposition of tariffs on a scale making it increasingly difficult for the debtors to make repayment through exports of goods and services. When, however, in the case of one particular commodity, a rise in the price is helping Great Britain in the !natter of making her payments to the United States, we have an immediate outcry, not merely from individual interests, but from the American Minister of Commerce himself. However, the City is not unmindful of the part which local politics plays in theso matters.
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