INTERNATIONAL BANKING

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22678, 5 April 1939, Page 9

INTERNATIONAL BANKING

TO THE EDITOR Of THE PRESS Sir, —The French have a proverb that he who seeks to excuse himself, accuses himself. The international banking system is rapidly coming under suspicion for the part it plays in its power to control our lives, whatever our nationality/ It is possible that the day is not distant when the system will be called to the bar of public opinion to face the charge that it has betrayed humanity. Lest there be some who have too great a faith in the power of public opinion to work for good, I would point out the immense power held by the system to mould that opinion. The broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation from Daventry on March 20 of a recorded talk by the Hon. Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, was a case in point. If every accused had the opportunity of not only framing the charge, but also putting forward his defence without the prosecutor’s side being heard, and also had control of the leading organs of publicity such as the newspapers and the radio, it would be practically impossible to obtain a conviction. The author of the broadcast talk does not confine his activities to banking. He Is q director of “The Times.” London. His brother Is a director of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Will the Australian and New 7«» land public, for whom the broadcast was specially prepared, feel that their future is as safe as the proverbial Bank of England, or will it be a case of qui s’excuse. s’accuse? —Yours, etc.. W. B. BRAY. April 3. 1939. •