"EVERY POUND"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 268, 12 November 1942, Page 4

"EVERY POUND"

LOAN TO BE REPAID

MR. CURTIN'S ASSURANCE

'"One hundred million pounds we ask you to subscribe to the present loan, and I frankly tell you there will be additional loans in the future," said the Pi-ime Minister of Australia, Mr. Curtin, speaking in Adelaide on Monday night. "Someone very stupidly said: 'How are you going to pay them?' I take the responsibility for saying here, that every pound of that money will be repaid by Australia." "Australia at the end of this financial year will have borrowed £500,000,000 for this war. Assume the war goes on another three years after that—put it at a figure of £1,000,000,000 that we will borrow for the war. That money can be paid. It represents but one year of the national income of this country. "Do you mean to say that there are not thousands of business men who have had overdrafts exceeding one year's profits? Aren't there thousands of workers with their homes which have cost more than one year's wages, or their farms on which the mortgage is far larger than one year's income?

"Have faith in the future of your country, have faith in your own productive capacity! (Applause.) "There is no obligation that the people of Australia accept that is not an obligation calmly and deliberately entered into by the responsible administration which they have set up to govern them. "This money should be available so that our men shall know that the heart and substance of this nation are with them every hour. Unless you give up something that you treasure, men and women of Australia, you are not making a sacrifice for the war. "You Are In It" "There was no place in any country where any citizen cculd escape the consequences of the war," said Mr. Curtin. "You are in it whether you like it or not," he added. "It is not what the Australian Government can say to the conscientious objector that is important; the vital thing is what will Japan say to him when it gets hold of him. 'This is the case with the men who say, 'I have spent a lifetime endeavouring to get something for my old age.' It is a sad reflection that there are so many Australians of that disposition. What he has saved is now a stake in the war, and only the success of his country can ensure its preservation for himself. "Whatever any of us have is an issue. If our country loses, the taxes which the treasurer imposes on you are but flea-bites in comparison with the indemnity, if not more that the enemy will impose on you if he is successful."