BRETTON WOODS PROPOSALS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24986, 21 September 1946, Page 2

BRETTON WOODS PROPOSALS

OBJECTIONS STATED TO PARLIAMENT LETTER FROM SOCIAL CREDIT ASSOCIATION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, September 20. Opposition to the Bretton Woods proposals is expressed in a letter sent to the General Assembly by the New Zealand Social Credit Association. Experts were most insistent that the agreement did not mean the return to gold standard, says the letter, but Article 4 read: “The par value of the currency of each member shall be expressed in terms of gold as a common denominator, or in terms of the United States gold doUar of the weight and fineness in effect on July 1, 1944.” That was surely plain wording and should brook little discussion, said the association. There was a solemn warning to the people of this country contained there, in that local experts had advised that Bretton Woods meant “good-bye to gold.” What justification was there, the letter asked, for accepting the assurance that Bretton Woods, with its World Bank and its International Monetary Fund, would bring stability when such obvious misstatements were necessary to lull public opinion? The agreement had been designed by American bankers for the express purpose of ensuring the financial supremacy of the United States, to eliminate the Sterling area and British Empire preference, and to destroy our national sovereignty over all financial and economic matters. The proposed scheme must develop into a form of tyranny that would become intolerable to the peoples of all nations and drive them to revolt, which would lead to complete totalitarianism. The association urges the formation of a Customs union giving free trade within the Empire. “This step would, at least, bring us into line with U.S.A, and the U.S.S.R., whose member States have no tariff barriers,” says the letter. “It would free us from the necessity of borrowing dollars and simplify liquidation of sterling balances.”