FINANCE AND POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 187, 9 August 1932, Page 6

FINANCE AND POLITICS.

1 How finance may influence politics is shown by the revelation in Sweden that all the political parties, except the Farmers, had been in the habit of receiving financial support 1 from Kreuger, the "match king." The Prime Minister has resigned owing to its having become known that he received 20,000 kroner from this source. The investigation carried on by the Swedish Board of Administration showed that for at least eight years there had been fraudulent manipulation of the Kreuger and Toll books, and that Kreuger had personal debts of nearly £20,000,000, in addition to other liabilities of some £15,000,000. It would have been impossible for such a state of affairs to exist for so long unless there had been some political control exercised by Kreuger and his associates. Kreuger, however, was not content with influencing local politics. He lent millions to foreign The revelations as to money paid to party funds cannot; fail to affect the Swedish elections due next month, and there will probably be a cleansing of the political atmosphere. Possibly in this amazing tangle of high finance and politics there are lessons for other countries as well.