any official statements that may be published concerning the financial position of the borrower.
Debts of some Dominion and Foreign Governments have one advantage over that of ours, in the shape of tangible assets, some of which produce a revenue and some even a revenue that more than suffices to meet the interest on the money spent on them. This is the retort that is always, and most rightly, hurled by the Australians at anyone who hints that Australia has borrowed rather rapidly in London. Nearly the whole of the British debt, as was shown above, represents money shot away in the course of wars, some of which have only happened because, as subsequent statesmen have told us, we "put our money on the wrong horse." Australia's debt is offset by the possession of a railway system, and national ownership of railways may be said to be the general rule, except in the United States, England and Argentina. So it happens by a curious paradox that the two countries whose credit stands highest have least to show as revenue producing assets to set off against their debts.
This fact seems to indicate that it is easy to attach too much importance to the possession of such assets, and it is clear that a creditor, who
