W. Churchill'in E. Venizelos'a, Yunanistan'ın İngiltere'ye olan savaş borcunun tasfiyesine ilişkin mektubu.

-3- net benefit whatsoever from these international debts. We have also said - and I am glad to repeat - that if any change of circumstances results in our receipts exceeding our payments, we will give the full benefit to our inter-allied debtors. The practical effect of this policy is that we are prepared to cancel approximately one half the debts due to this country and must call for payment of the balance. Any further concessions must be based solely upon the financial capacity of the debtor Governments in relation to the amount of the debt they owe. On this basis, the Treasury is willing to reduce the scale of payments demanded of Greece to the equivalent of a (flat) annuity of about 500,000, so arranged that the payments are reduced during the earlier years, to take account of the immediate dif- iculties of Greek finance. This, in itself, represents a very lar- ge sacrifice, as compared with our legal claims and in my opinion it represents all that Greece can justify on purely financial and econo- mic grounds. While I recognise the present difficulties of Gre- ece, I see many indications of progress and I am confident that, gi- ven a prudent policy during the reconstruction period, the Greek nati- on will not only recover, but will be able greatly to exceed, the pro- sperity of pre-war days. The refugees who at present pay no taxes and re- represent a charge on the Budget will soon prove an accession of finan- cial strength to the mother country and to its finances, as they were before to Turkey. The Greek Budget has shown great powers of expansion for other purposes in recent years and has increased during the past year by an amount four times as great as the maximum annuity required to settle her debts. The reduction in the scale of payments during the