Of the Continental European nations Finland alone has arranged to repay her obligation to the United States. The United States holds sufficient German assets to cover reparations, and a German-American commission met in Washington, in March, 1923, to adjudicate the claims of American citizens against the German Government. No progress has been made in the matter of claims against other enemy countries. France, Italy, and the smaller European countries, except Finland, have made no move to pay the interest and amortize the principal of the loans advanced by the United States. What has happened, however, as we have already seen, is that our European debtors have announced the policy of making reimbursement to the United States dependent upon the collection of reparations from Germany and the other vanquished nations. The argument by which they support this policy is easy to grasp. They say: “We cannot pay the United States and Great Britain unless we receive the reparations granted us by the treaties of the Paris settlement. If we modify or waive our claims, as embodied in the Paris treaties, we must look to the United States and Great Britain to cancel our debts to them.” For several years this has been the answer of the French press to American and British criticism of France’s reparations policy; on May 11, 1923, it was stated officially in Mussolini’s reply to the German offer to settle reparations on the basis of 30,000,000,000 gold marks. American public opinion, while sympathetic to France and Belgium in the Ruhr occupation, feels that debts should be paid all around, and is unwilling to accept as valid the contention of contingent payments or to realize that our European friends have the right to expect us to let up on them if they let up on Germany. Europeans ask: “Why should the conquerors pay, while the conquered go scot-free? Are we not the victims? Were they not the aggressors? It is incredible to expect us to forgive our enemies when you are unwilling to forgive your friends?” The Americans retort, “Why should we pay the German reparations, for this is what your proposal amounts to?” The principal interallied debts are as follows: 1. France owes Great Britain and the United States $7,000,000,000. 2. Italy owes Great Britain and the United States 4,500,000,000. 3. Belgium owes Great Britain and the United States 900,000,000. 4. Great Britain owes the United States 4,750,000,000. 5. Russia owes France 4,000,000,000. 6. Russia owes Great Britain and the United States 500,000,000. 7. The smaller states owe Great Britain, the United States, and France more than 3,500,000,000.