Modification or Cancellation of War Debts and Reparations Question of Expediency and Common Sense," Says Roorbach

"The modification or cancellation of war debts and reparations is not a question of legality or justice, but of expediency and common sense," and G. B. Roorbach, professor of Foreign Trade at the Harvard Business School, in a CRIMSON interview yesterday. "The countries of the world, particularly the United States, will have to realize that Great Britain, France, and the other debtor nations are not attempting to repudiate their payments out of any spirit of unfriendliness; they are doubtless as disappointed that world financial conditions do not permit paying, as we in this country are that a modification of the debts seems inevitable for the same reasons.

"It is an impossibility for these nations to pay in fall," Professor Roorbach continued, "without continuing or even deepening the present depression and long delaying recovery. One thing is probable, and that is that if the debts are not substantially reduced, or even cancelled, some of them, at least, will be repudiated, not because of any wilfull desire to cheat the United States, but by virtue of the inability of the debator nations to pay. The result of repudiation would create a world-wide feeling of suspicion and uncertainty, which would long delay the economic recovery of the nations.

"The most sensible plan would be to link a reduction of the debts to other questions, and in return for either a partial or total modification, to secure other benefits, which would be useful not only to the United States, but to the entire world. Reduction of armaments and removal of many of the trade barriers which have sprung up in the last ten years are two topics which might well be proposed, as a move they might consider in return for our modification of the debts. In my opinion, however, it is obvious that modification or cancellation would held restore international credit and start again foreign investments which are now hesitant to embark on now enterprises, and go far to a restoration of international trade on a sound basis."