World War Foreign Debts Commission Act is a United States statute authorized February 9, 1922 endorsing a commission, working under Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, to negotiate repayment agreements with Great Britain and France in the aftermath of World War I.
The Commission placed the Allied debt principal to the United States at $11 billion. Payments were to be made in graduated 62 annual installments but the accrued interest on these payments over a period of 62 years would have increased the debt to approximately $22 billion, although the U.S. did agree to lowered interest rates. Great Britain's debt was reduced 19.7% to $4.6 billion with the interest rate reduced from 5% to 3% for the first ten years of payment to be raised to 3½% thereafter. France's debt was reduced by 52.8% to $4 billion, without any interest for the first five years of payment. It was then to be increased gradually to 3½%.
See also Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red Mellon–Berenger Agreement Repudiation of debt at the Russian Revolution
References
Bibliography
Negotiations on behalf of the World War Foreign Debt Commission for the settlement or refunding of debts owed the United States by foreign governments (Documents 116–143)
Complications for the United States from International Credits: 1913 -1940, George J. Hall Thomas J. Sargent, June 18, 2019
U.S. Presidential Statements Concerning Foreign War Debt