of poverty for the time being, though it may be compatible with the possession of great potential resources. The latter condition has evidently been present in our Dominions and in countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile. It should be noted, however, that the United States, though still a borrowing country up to the time of the war, held all its own Government debt and only did its borrowing by issues of railroad and industrial bonds and stocks. Evidently the financial position of the Governments of our Dominions and of the foreign countries that are chronic borrowers abroad would have been much stronger if the funds necessary for development purposes had been raised by private enterprise, according to the American pattern.
The comparatively severe burden imposed on a country by a debt raised abroad has already been shown, and it is clear that the debts of those countries which are continually adding to this burden become increasingly unattractive to the prudent investor. For the time being repeated issues of external debt relieve the burden because the interest on the existing loans is paid not by a reduction of the consumption of the inhabitants but out of the pockets of investors in some other country who find the fresh money. But there comes a time
