CONVERTIBILITY OF STERLING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27463, 24 September 1954, Page 13

CONVERTIBILITY OF STERLING

“Many Problems Yet To Be Solved” (N.Z Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m. WASHINGTON, September 22. Mr R. A. Butler, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, said here today that many problems had to be solved before Britain could decide to make sterling freely convertible. Mr Butler arrived in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which will open on Friday. In a statement at the airport on his arrival, Mr Butler said there were many questions to be discussed before a decision on convertibility could be reached. “There is . a great deal to be done, for instance, in freeing trade,” he said. Asked if he was referring to any particular nation, he replied: “By all the countries concerned—international trade ia a two-way traffic.” Mr Butler said he was looking forward to meeting the Commonwealth Finance Ministers, with whom he would review the problems of freer trade and finance.

Mr Butler was told, at a later meeting with senior United States Treasury rfScfals, that the Eisenhower Administration would continue to fight for the liberalisation of United States foreign economic policies. After a conference between Mr Butler and Mr George Humphrey, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, an American spokesman said. ‘ ‘Reference was made to the President s programme of last March, and that is the programme of the United States. President Eisenhower then urged Congress to give him broad authority to cut tariffs, to stimulate dollar investment abroad, and to take, other measures to liberalise economic policies which would increase the flow ol world trade. After his conference at the Treasury, Mr Butler referred briefly to business conditions in the United States. He said the recent readjustment ‘■held better than we thought possible. Thanks to the wise policies you have followed you have limited its effects in the outside world, including my country."