DEFENCE OF STEELING.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20330, 1 September 1931, Page 11

DEFENCE OF STEELING.

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS MOBILISED. COMPANIES' OFFER. (Received August 31st, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 31. I'oreign investments totalling £IOO,000,000, belonging to big insurance companies and investment houses, which were mobilisod during the past few days, have been offered to the Government and Rank of England, for the defence of sterling, and "will thus assist the £50,000,000 credit from Franco and the United States.

Tho mobilisation was voluntary and was due to tho initiative of the Prudential Assurance Company, which also offered to hand over all its American investments ii: exchange for British Government sterling securities. A feature of tho present economic situation is the marked decline in Britain's invisible exports, which totalled £137,000,000 in 1029. They shrank to £30,000,000 in 1930, and aro now practipally non-existent owing to the under employment of British shipping and tho decline of interest on such investments as South American Railways.

ONE-YEAB CREDITS

AN EXCELLENT EFFECT,

PORTION MAY NEVER BE USED.

(BRITISH OKICUI. WIRELESS.) RUGBY, August 30. The City Editor of "The Times" remarks that tbe credits from France and America to tho British Government are really of tho nature of insurance. Their mere existence should have an excellent effect, and a largo portion of them may never ho used at all. Tho gucce&iful conclusion of negotiations with Paris and Now York for tho credits, amounting to about SQ,000,000 dollars, for one year, is announced by she Treasury in the following "For the purpose of strengthening still further the oxchango posjti.iji of the sterling, negotiations have been in progress with tho financial authorities of New York ajul Paris. They have been concluded on tho following basis: "In the caso of America, the arrangement is th&t a financial group undertakes, if called upon, to take up from the British Government, dollar Treasury Bills to a total not exceeding 500,000,000 dollars. "In the Case of France, an agreement in principle has been reached with a view to making available a sum not exceeding fivo milliards of francs, partly in the form of credit from French banks, and partly bv the issue qf prifcUh frano hills to the French public. "The sum to be borrowed in each centre will bo for a term of a year. Negotiations have been conducted jn t|io roost cardial spirit, am} the greatest assistance lias been received froii) the French Ministry of Finance, the lltirtk of France, and the various authorities in America." Tho negotiations were carried through very expeditiously and without tny difficulty. Tho British representatives reached Paris only on Wednesdny night. Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, Deputy-Controller of Finance at the Treasurv, tlioir chief, expressed to M. P. E. jFlandin, French Minister for Finance, on behalf of Mr Philip SnoWden, the British Government's appreciation of the cordial support or the French Government and the Bank of France during the negotiations. M'. Flaiidin, in reply, paid a tribute to the well-earned confidence which British credit inspired throughout tho world.

TARIFF ISSUE.

TRADE JJNJQN CONGRESS ATTITUDE. LONDON, August 31. "The Tinges" says th& Opuncjl is inviting the Trade Union Congress to decide the tariff issije. The section of the Council *sicli favours e, tariff is convinced that it it tie presented M a possible mfans of averting wage awd dole outs, the traditional opposition e>t the Congress to Protection could be overcome.