War Debts and Reparations

Report Outline
Status of French Debt to the United States
Status of Funded Foreign Indebtedness
War Loans and the Public Debt
Special Focus

The indebtedness of foreign nations to the Government of the United States on November 15, 1928 - ten years after the close of the World War - totalled $11,853,406,769. This sum includes both the unfunded foreign debt, with its accrued interest, and the principal to be paid during the next 60 years by the governments that have signed funding agreements with the United States.

The leading foreign debtors of the United States are Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium. Of the total of loans advanced by this country during the war and after the Armistice, Great Britain received 41.4 per cent; France 32.9 per cent; Italy 16.0 per cent, and Belgium 3.7 per cent. Thus these nations together received 94 per cent of the total advances made to foreign governments by the Government of the United States.

Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium all have signed funding agreements with the United States, but the agreement signed with France in 1926 still remains unratified. France made payments during 1926–28, however, aggregating $92,565,008 with the understanding that they would be credited as a part of the payments of principal required under the funding agreement when it has been ratified. The present status of the debts of the four leading foreign debtors is shown in the following table.