Yet, in some of the exaggerated ideas of France and other countries of the Entente, there is not only the rancour and anxiety for the future, but a sentiment of well-founded diffidence.  After the War the European States belonging to the Entente have been embarrassed not only on account of the enormous internal debts, but also for the huge debts contracted abroad.

If Germany had not had to pay any indemnity and had not lost her colonies and mercantile marine we should have been confronted with the absurd paradox that the victorious nations would have issued from the War worn out, with their territories destroyed, and with a huge foreign debt; Germany would have had her territory quite intact, her industries ready to begin work again, herself anxious to start again her productive force, and in addition with no foreign debt, consequently ample credit abroad.  In the mad struggle to break up Germany there has had part not only hatred, but also a quite reasonable anxiety which, after all, must be taken into consideration.

Even to-day, three years after the War, Great Britain has not paid her debt to America, and France and Italy have not paid their debts to America and Great Britain.  Great Britain could pay with a great effort; France and Italy cannot pay anyhow.

According to the accounts of the American Treasury the Allies’ War debt is 9,587 millions of dollars:  4,277 millions owing from Great Britain, 2,977 millions from France, 1,648 millions from Italy, 349 millions from Belgium, 187 millions from Russia, 61 millions from Czeko-Slovakia, 26 millions from Serbia, 25 millions from Rumania, and 15 millions from Greece.  Up to last July Great Britain had paid back 110 millions of dollars.  Since the spring of 1919 the payment of the interest on the amounts due to the American Treasury has been suspended by some European States.  Between October and November, 1919, the amount of the capitalizing and unpaid interests of the European States came to 236 million dollars.  The figure has considerably increased since then.

According to the Statist (August 6, 1921) the Allies’ debt to the United States on March 31, 1921, amounted to ten milliards and 959 million dollars, including the interests, in which sum Great Britain was interested to the sum of 4,775 million dollars and France for 3,351 million dollars.  But the Statist’s figures, in variance to the official figures, include other debts than strictly war debts.

The debts of the various allied countries’ to Great Britain on March 31, 1921, according to a schedule annexed to the financial statement for 1921-22, published by the British Treasury, came to L1,777,900,000, distributed as follows:  France 557 millions, Italy 476 millions, Russia 561 millions, Belgium 94 millions, Serbia 22 millions, Portugal, Rumania, Greece and other Allies 66 millions.  This sum represents War debts.  But to it must be added the L9,900,000 given by Great Britain for the reconstruction of Belgium and the loans granted by her for relief to an amount of L16,000,000.  So, altogether, Great Britain’s credit to the Allies on March 31, 1921, was L1,803,600,000, and has since been increased by the interests.  Great Britain had also at the same date a credit of L144,000,000 to her dominions.