Promise to Pay

The nation that started and lost two world wars last week undertook to make good its huge international debts, that come in the wake of wars. In a "financial peace treaty" signed in London with 18 nations, bustling West Germany assured creditors in 30 non-Communist lands that their claims will be honored. Germany pledged to pay out $3.27 billion in the next 35 years. Half the total represents worldwide German debts that started mounting up in 1918, and were finally repudiated by Hitler. American private investors who bought German bonds under the Dawes and Young Plans have been promised $450 million by the new agreement.

The other half of the money will reimburse the U.S., Great Britain and France for the money which, matched by German energy, has transformed West Germany from the wreck of 1945 to the prosperous, profit-making nation of today. But to help Germany pay its debts, all three countries had to settle for much less than they had spent: Great Britain trimmed its claim from $562.8 million to $420 million; France cut its amount from $15.7 to $11.8 million; the U.S., most generously of all, gave up $2 billion, settling for $1.2 billion.

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